Heart of Metal
by Deidon
Summary: The heart. Despite its shortcomings, it can outlast even the strongest storm. And when all is said and done, it can be reforged to be stronger than metal.
1. Broken Heart & Memories

Heart of Metal

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><p>Chapter 1: Broken Heart &amp; Memories<p>

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><p>Did fate have it in for her? Was there some sort of deity looking over the world that made sure she would never succeed? Or was her luck simply the worst out of everyone in Tokyo City?<p>

She simply wasn't sure anymore. She always seemed to recover from it, but inside, every rejection cut like a jagged knife.

Momoko Akatsutsumi sighed, watching the sun set over Tokyo bay from the roof of Professor Utonium's laboratory. Her love life just never seemed to work out, no matter how hard she tried to make it work. Though, she wondered if it would ever work out with her double life as both Momoko, and as Blossom of the Powerpuff Girls Z.

There had been so many attempts with so many boys, and one frog, but she didn't really count that. Miracle Fighting Ace was stupid, now that she looked back at it. After all, he was, what, in his mid twenties, while Momoko was still in her teens.

Sakamoto was...an experience to say the least. Looking back, she knew the only real reason she had been, 'in love,' with Sakamoto was because he liked her. Since most boys turned her down at first, her heart leapt at the chance of someone actually having feelings for her. Even one so...objectionable.

And then there was the frog prince...she was still attempting to forget about that, and so she tried not to think about it too often.

And then there were just so many of the other boys, the ones where she just went up into their faces and essentially said, "I love you!" and their response was a plain, "No," and that was the end of that.

_Maybe it's better this way_, she thought, _after all, with my life as Blossom, I don't even know how many boys would want to stay with me that long._

Popping out a small box of Toppo, Momoko quietly ate a few pieces, and though the taste filling her mouth was eccentric, she just couldn't find the joy to fully enjoy it, which was rare for her.

Eventually, she decided that it was pretty late, and just as she was about to head back inside, she heard footsteps behind her, and a moment later, her two best friends sat down beside her.

"Momoko," asked the always cheery Miyako Gotokuji, "what's wrong?"

"And don't try telling us there's nothing wrong," forcefully added the always...well, forceful Kaoru Matsubara, "cause we'll know right off!"

Momoko let out a sigh, but smiled a bit anyways. Though the three girls didn't get along sometimes, they were connected, and not just by the superpowers they shared. There was a part of her deep inside that wished she could call them her sisters.

"Well..." she began, feeling a bit out of place all of a sudden, "it's just that... I'm feeling a little down about how I'm always turned down."

"You?" Kaoru questioned. Momoko nodded. "But you usually handle rejection so...well, you handle it at least."

"Why are you suddenly so upset about it?" queried Miyako.

"I'm not sure... Maybe whatever's been keeping me going has finally started to run out." She let out yet another exasperated sigh. "I just don't know..."

"Well, don't fret," Miyako encouraged, "I'm sure you'll find the right man for you some day."

"Easy for you to say, you have Takaaki," Momoko countered. Miyako's face took on a faint red hue, and she looked away, a bit embarrassed.

"Yeah, Miyako found someone and you haven't, so what?" Kaoru argued. "Maybe he'll appear like some kind of superhero or something, protecting you from harm!" Kaoru was attempting to cheer up, and it seemed to work when Momoko let out a giggle.

"What is it?" Miyako questioned. Momoko ceased her giggling, a smile now on her face that didn't seem to fade.

"It's just that it's ironic that since we're PPGZ, I have to wait for someone to protect me for once."

The realization of the pure irony of the comment made all three girls burst into laughter. The fit of laughter ended in the three girls lying on their backs, gasping for air.

Picking herself up, and attempting to stifle any leftover laughter she had, Momoko thanked her two friends.

"Ah, it was nothing," Kaoru said, "but if you really want to make it up to us... You'll give me some of that Toppo." She smiled devilishly, while Momoko stood silent for a moment. Then, she raced away from the two back into the lab, clutching her Toppo to her body like it was her lifeline.

Or course, Kaoru quickly jumped up in pursuit, screaming after her friend to hand over the small bread sticks filled with chocolate.

Miyako couldn't help but giggle at the antics of her friends, and she followed them back into the lab, ready to head home, as the sun had now disappeared over the distant mountains.

Later that night, as Momoko lay in her bed, thinking about the events of the day, she suddenly remembered the idea Kaory brought up, the idea that her true love would come to save her from harm.

Suddenly, she found herself remembering a long forgotten event from around a year and a half ago to two years, before she had met Miyako or Kaoru, and before she had ever dreamed of being in the PPGZ.

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><p><em>Momoko was twelve back then, and it was her first day of middle school.<em>

_Shy as shy could be, she asked nobody for help getting to classes, though she wasn't exactly sure where to go for her first class._

_As the first bell rang for the day, signaling every student to attend their classes, Momoko was left with no other choice but to ask for help._

_Though, it was easier said than done. As a clear new student, most of the older classmen simply ignored her requests for directions and went on with their business._

_Eventually, she tapped the shoulder of one of the last few students remaining, hoping that he would be able to give her correct directions._

_However, when the boy turned around, Momoko wished she hadn't even had the idea of asking for help._

_The minute Momoko laid eyes on the boy, she could tell he was trouble. The black muscle shirt complete with skull and crossbones sent a bad enough message, and the dirty, square-ish face practically screamed, "I'm a bully!"_

_Backing up into the nearby lockers, Momoko attempted to stutter out an apology and then get out of there as fast as she could, but the boy spoke up before she could._

"_Aw, is the little birdie lost?" he teased. "Well, little freshmeat, I'm afraid this isn't the best time to get lost. It's the new year, and I'm still wishing for more sun n' fun. And that," he glared at Momoko and cracked his knuckles, "makes me angry."_

_At this point, Momoko was so frightened that she could barely do anything, with the sole exception of shake and bring tears to her eyes. Unfortunately, this boy was the type of bully who would beat up anyone who annoyed him, and even those who just happened across him, regardless of their gender._

"_What do you say, boys?" he asked his friends who had crowded around poor, helpless Momoko. "Hows about we teach the little birdie who's king of the school?"_  
><em>All of his friends, who were dressed in a similar fashion, laughed evilly, and it was then the boy introduced himself.<em>

"_The name's Dan Sasaki. Don't worry, with this beating," he thrust his fist into his open palm to emphasize his point, "you won't ever forget the name."_

_With this, Dan drew his fist back, and Momoko closed her eyes, wishing that she had done horribly in the last grade so she didn't have to go through this torture._

"_Oi! You! Leave her alone!"_

_A sudden outburst from another person caused Dan and his gang to turn around, and face another student. A boy who appeared to be just as old as Dan, maybe older, possibly in one of the upper classes, maybe sixth or seventh grade._

_He had short, black hair that was messily laid across his scalp, his bangs lengthy enough to cover his forehead, but not quite long enough to reach his eyebrows. _

_His eyes were both a compliment and a contrast to his hair, being a dark blue. He wore a plain brown t-shirt, and a blue zip-up hoodie, which was unzipped, presumably to show off his shirt. A simple pair of black jeans and red sneakers completed the outfit._

_While Momoko wasn't big on fashion, she still kept up with some of the trends, and from the way this boy looked, he either didn't follow the trends at all, didn't care about them, or purposely went against them. His outfit just screamed independence. Or tackiness. Or possibly both._

_Dan eyed the boy, then chuckled. "Well, well. If it isn't the old stick in the mud. Or should I say, the stick OUT in the mud!"_

_At the joke about the boy's clear independence, Dan and his group of three friends went into a fit of laughter. However, they were joined by a fifth laugh._  
><em>That of the boy who had just been made fun of.<em>

_As his laughter died down, a bit after the laughter of the other children had, he smiled at Dan._

"_Man, that was a good one I'll admit. Didn't think you even had the brainpower to make a joke that funny, Dan," he __said._

_At this, Dan's face scrunched up in anger. But before he had a chance to retort, the boy spoke again, this time with a more serious expression._

"_Leave the girl alone, Dan. I thought you were the kind who only picked on guys, not innocent girls."_

_Dan lost his anger, at least on his face, and pointed to a now slightly less frightened, and also confused Momoko. "But she's new here, I was just giving her a little welcome present." He chuckled, almost maniacally._

_At this, the boy walked up to the group, and stood in between Dan and Momoko, effectively shielding the latter from the former._

"_Only the lowliest of cowards picks on girls, let alone beats them up," the boy accused. "Go pick on someone your own size."_

_This was the last straw for Dan. Raising his fist back, he said a bit too loudly, "Fine! Then you can have her welcome present!"_

_With that, he landed a hard punch right into the face of the heroic young boy._

_The boy stumbled back wards away from the group a bit, and grasped a hand to his face, looking down at the ground._

_Then, he raised his head to look directly at Dan. The look in his eyes said that he was angry, but that he also knew better than to fight back._

_Noticing a small dribble of blood emerging from his mouth, the boy wiped it away with the back of his hand. He then walked back over to the group, re-assuming his position in front of Momoko, who, at the sight of blood, was now very close to tears._

"_Like I said, pick on someone your own size," the boy repeated. Dan chuckled evilly again._

"_Well, if that's how you want it, there's more where that came from!" And he raised his hand again to deliver another blow._

"_What's going on here?"_

_The shout startled the six students, and all their heads turned to see Ms. Keane, arguably the teacher who hated fighting the most._

_Dan stood there stupidly for a moment, and just as he was about to either sputter out some sort of lie, or run away, the unnamed boy spoke up first._

"_It's nothing Keane-sensei," he assured, "just a little misunderstanding," he looked at Dan with a smile on his face, "right, Dan?" He extended his hand as a clear invitation for Dan to shake his hand with his own._

_Begrudgingly, and everyone except Ms. Keane could see that, Dan extended his own hand and shook the boy's._

"_Yep," he said, trying his best to sound like he had just resolved some sort of argument, "just a misunderstanding."_

"_Oh, I see," Ms Keane said, losing her fear that something terrible had occurred. "Well, you better be getting to classes then, you're all pretty late."_

_At this, there was a small voice that spoke up._

"_Um... I'm not sure where to go..."_

_It was Momoko, who worked her way out of the group of older boys and stood in front on Ms. Keane, who smiled down on the new student._

"_Well then, how about I take you to the office and we sort out where you need to go?"_

_At this, the young Momoko looked up form her gaze at the floor, and happily smiled up at Ms. Keane._

_But as Ms. Keane walked away, Momoko stayed back for a moment. She turned to the boy who had saved her and bowed respectfully._

"_Th-thank you for helping me," she said, her shyness getting the better of her on her first word._

"_Don't mention it," the boy replied._

"_If you don't mind," Momoko requested, "I'd like to know your name, please." She smiled this time, her shyness all but gone, and the boy did the same._

_Putting his hands behind his head, he said, "Name's Sadato Takahashi. And you are...?"_

"_Momoko Akatsutsumi. Nice to meet you."_

"_Likewise."_

_Just then, Ms. Keane called for Momoko, and hurriedly, she excused herself to Sadato, and ran after the teacher._

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><p>Momoko remembered that since she was only twelve at the time, she had not yet developed her love for cute boys back then. In fact, she had honestly forgotten about Sadato not too long after the incident.<p>

She questioned herself as to why she had forgotten about such an event for such a long time, when she remembered the answer.

After the incident, Sadato had practically disappeared. She had searched for him the next few days of her first day, but all that the teachers told her was that he didn't go to the school anymore. Momoko sighed, not for the first time that day. _Where did he go?_

Looking up at the clock in her room, and seeing how much time she had spent simply reminiscing on the past, Momoko finally decided to think about it another time, and drifted off into sleep, filled with dreams of cute boys, snacks of all kinds, and defeating plenty of villains heroically as Blossom.

However, unknown to the sleeping PPGZ member, at the same time that she had achieved her dream by acquiring the powers from the white light on that fateful day...

A certain blue-eyed boy had also gained powers.

But from the light of the opposite color.

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><p><strong>Welp... I wonder how many people are actually going to read this. Probably not a lot, considering the fandom for this show is...limited.<strong>

**Anyways, yeah, I just started a PPGZ fic. ...Part of me still can't believe I'm actually doing this. But, I feel that the show deserves much respect as an epic anime (the Japanese dub, not the HORRIBLE English dub), and I feel that by adding some seriousness and romance, it'll make it that much better.**

**A few notes though: One, don't expect that many of those Japanese honorific things that come after a name (kun, chan, san), because they just confuse me to no end. Two, the story is set in the Japanese dub world, where it's Tokyo and not New Townsville (ENGlISH DUB!), and the girls actually have normal names when they aren't transformed (EEEENNGLII- Oh, you get the point). Three, don't expect the RRBZ to end up with the PPGZ, since I honestly prefer MiyakoxTakkaki, I'm not sure Kaoru would really end up with anyone, and Momo- Oops... Almost spoiled stuffs... Hehehe... ^^**

**I hope that the few people who read this can find it enjoyable. Also... If anyone has an idea for a title better than the one I have now, please tell me in your review, which I implore you to leave when you're done reading. "Heart of Metal," isn't bad, it's just...kinda bland. I've had some good ideas, but I'd love to know what you guys think!**

**Alight, I've rambled on enough. Thanks for reading, and remember to review, favorite/add to alerts, and spread the word. Thanks! See you all in Chapter 2, which is already partway done. ^^  
><strong>


	2. Forged in Black

Heart of Metal

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><p>Chapter 2: Forged in Black<p>

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><p><em>Clang! Clang! Clang!<em>

Sadato wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, attempting to get rid of the large amounts of salty sweat that had formed there. He admitted, the job was harder than he wanted it to be, but it paid well, and it was simple, at least.

Looking up from the board he was hammering nails into, he looked over the small hill he was on to the city of Tokyo beneath him. It was a nice, warm day, even though it was nearing the end of the year. Sadato was still surprised that other countries had such blaring differences in temperatures during the different seasons, while Japan only got snow and cold during the last month or so of the year, and during the first month of the new year.

Looking in the opposite direction form the city, he gazed upon the construction site he was currently working in. With Japan being a world power and all, it made sense that new skyscrapers being built would only make sense. Though, one wouldn't expect a fourteen year old boy to be working along with all of the big men.

Then again, all Sadato was doing was nailing some wood, lifting some supplies, and bringing tools and occasionally food to the real workers. He didn't do any of the big work, like operate the crane that was moving giant metal girders, or welding those girders into place. Still, though, he was paid an hourly fee for his work, and the men appreciated his efforts to help in the construction. Not to mention that they just liked the kid in general. He was kind, polite, and had good wits about him.

In fact, on that very day, the men were preparing a gift, since Sadato had helped with the construction since close to day one. They had to pull a few strings, and their salaries would be decreased a bit that month, but they felt Sadato deserved something for his efforts.

That day, Sadato carried out his normal tasks, nailing some wood together for walls, bringing tools to the workers, and doing various other small jobs the workers requested of him.

Though, Sadato noticed that something was up with the workers. They seemed to be...hiding something from him. Whatever it was, Sadato ignored it for the time being and continued his work.

As the day wore on, the men seemed to become more and more anxious, though in a sort of excited way, like a child would be for a birthday party.

Soon, noon rolled around, and all of the men broke for lunch, Sadato including. Though, he was stopped by one of the men, who simply told him he had a better place for him to eat that day.

"Where is it?" Sadato asked with curiosity. The worker chuckled and held up a small bandanna, suddenly tying it around Sadato's eyes.

"Hey!" he protested. "What're you doing?"

"Don't worry, Sadato," the worker reassured, "it's just a little surprise we have planned for you."

"If you say so..."

And so, Sadato was blindly led to somewhere secret, at least to him. He was eventually told to stop, but then felt himself...going up?

It wasn't that he had this sixth sense for altitude or something, but his gut simply told him that they were heading upwards. Eventually, the feeling subsided, and the bandanna was removed form his eyes, temporarily blinding him, as the sun was shining in his eyes.

Though, when his eyes adjusted, they widened with surprise.

He was practically on top of the structure, or at least close to the top floor. Since the metal frame building was still under construction, a large platform of wood had been set up, with metal railings to keep anyone form falling off, which meant certain death, considering that they were several stories up in the air.

Sadato marveled at the amazing view. From his eyes, he was able to see most of Tokyo, including the rest of the large skyscrapers and the bay.

He then laid eyes on a small table that had been set up, laid with all of Sadato's favorite foods. He had always told the men he had one heck of a sweet tooth, and so they had made him a surprise feast of various sugary snacks on top of the structure.

As Sadato was turned around to thank the worker, however, he found the worker gone, presumably, he guessed, to allow Sadato the day off to enjoy his meal.

Not wanting to disappoint, Sadato quickly sat in the provided chair, and began to demolish the table full of treats.

Sadato was so occupied with his treats that he didn't notice a large iceberg forming in the bay of Tokyo city.

Finishing a small cupcake, he decided to take a small break from gorging himself to look at the metal framework of the building.

Placing a hand on the steel girders that made up the bulk of the framework, he marveled at their ability to be able to hold up so much weight.

Part of him, deep down, wished that he could be impenetrable like metal, like steel. Then, he would be able to protect the ones he cared about.

A brief memory flashed in his mind, one where he protected a young middle-schooler from an older bully. Of course, it was the memory with Momoko and Dan, but there's no need to go through that again.

He sighed, wondering if the girl remembered him at all. After all, he had left just a few days after he had saved her. Truth be told, his leaving was not his choice.

His parents had been at each other's throats during the summer before the event, and not too long before the school year, they had filed for divorce with one another.

A few days after the school year started, his mother had decided to move away from the city in order to escape her now ex-husband, who had quickly become an alcoholic after the divorce.

Of course, his dad being a drunk and all, and Sadato having very bad memories of alcohol in the past, had no other choice but to go with his mother outside the city into the country. This move was meant to be permanent, but recently, her mother found work that paid a far amount greater than her current job back in the city. By that time, Sadato's father had been arrested for committing a crime while intoxicated, and been sentenced to many years in prison.

Sadato didn't even consider visiting him.

For the time being, however, he was unable to go back to the middle school where Momoko went to, for he lived in the area of the city that was much closer to a different school. It wasn't better, or worse, just...different.

_I just wish_, Sadato though to himself, _that just once, I could be strong, like the metal holding up this building..._

Just then, Sadato heard an extremely large noise behind him, like a giant bomb had just gone off in the city, and he turned around to see the remains of an iceberg being blown up by some sort of laser device

"What in the-!" he exclaimed. The explosion carried no shock wave, thankfully, but Sadato saw something disturbing coming from the explosion.

Several black lights were shooting out of the ruins of the iceberg, along with white lights.

And one of the black lights was headed right for Sadato.

Frozen by fear, Sadato only began to move when the black light was very close to him. At that point, he moved to run away, but tripped over himself. Luckily, he caught himself on one of the metal girders surrounding him.

It was at that point, touching the girder and connected to all of the ones around it, that the black light struck Sadato head on.

For a few seconds, Sadato felt like he was being electrocuted by so much pure energy that pain coursed though every square inch of his body. He would have screamed out, but for some reason his mouth just couldn't make a sound, and so it just stayed open in a silent scream.

During those few seconds, Sadato noticed, through the haze that the pain created, that the metal girder he was holding on to was changing somehow, though he couldn't exactly place how.

After those few, agonizing seconds, the pain subsided, along with the black light surrounding Sadato, and he slumped to the ground, weakened by the mysterious light that had struck him.

"W-what was that?" he asked himself, surprised at the weakness in his voice.

Picking himself up and dusting himself off, Sadato failed to notice that a section of the girder he had been hanging on to was now gone, the place where it had been smoking with heat, as if it had been welded away.

Sadato then heard the voice of someone calling to him.

"Sadato! Are you okay!""

Looking over the edge of the platform, Sadato saw the workers gathered in a tight group, and the chief was shouting on a megaphone to Sadato, who waved down at them.

"Yeah," he shouted, "I'm fine! How about you guys?"

"We're okay, too! Now, come down from there, who knows what could happen next!"

"Right!"

And so, Sadato quickly got on the small service elevator that linked the ground to the upper floors of the building, and quickly descended to the ground level.

Of course, not too long after the events of that day, the PPGZ, along with their newly created enemies, made themselves known to the world, and the rest...

Is history.

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><p><em>Several months later, about the time that Him steals the black light from most of the monsters...<em>

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><p>Sadato sighed, lying on his bed, not believing how true the phrase, 'history repeats itself,' was turning out to be.<p>

Once again, he and his mother had moved out of the city to the countryside, not too far from Mount Fuji, and now, his mother was dropping hints that they may move _back_ into the city. At this point, Sadato cared not for the reasons, he was worried that this would become his life: make friends in one place, begin to get used to it, then just to move to another house a few months later.

_This is ridiculous! _Sadato though to himself. _Will we ever just settle down for at least a few years or something!_

A small part of him made a joke about the PPGZ coming to save him from a horrible fate, but the sound of his mother calling him from the kitchen, saying that dinner was ready snapped him out of his reverie.

But just as Sadato got up to head downstairs, his midsection exploded with a pain unlike any other.

He fell to his knees, an extremely strained groaning sound escaping his mouth, but he found that no other sound would come out. The feeling coursing through him was as if something was inside his torso, and was trying to force it's way into the open world.

Suddenly, as quickly as it came, the pain went away, leaving Sadato covered in a fine layer of sweat and breathing heavily.

_What was that? _he thought to himself. _It felt like there was a tiger in my chest trying to claw its way out..._

Just as Sadato recovered from the pain and was ready to head downstairs to enjoy a lovely home cooked dinner, an immense shaking suddenly overtook the house.

"What now!" Sadato cried out. Running down the stairs, careful not to lose his balance in the tremendous shaking, he found his way down to the kitchen, where he came upon a horrifying sight.

His mother, lying on the floor, passed out. A small pile of glass next to her head, coupled with a small bleeding head wound, told Sadato that a glass cup had fallen out of the cupboard in the shaking, and had knocked her out.

Kneeling down by his mother's limp form, Sadato shook her shoulder, calling for her to wake up. Unfortunately, his mother was out cold, and she did not wake from unconsciousness.

Sadato cursed under his breath, for he knew he wouldn't be able to lift his mother out of the house without injuring them both. So, he did the only other thing he could think of.

"I'm going to get help," he told his mother, though he knew she couldn't hear him, "I'll be back, I promise."

Bursting out the door, Sadato was greeted with the source of the earthquake: Mount Fuji violently erupting, spewing red hot lava all around.

But what Sadato saw along with the exploding volcano was another sight altogether.

He didn't know exactly what he saw, but it looked like a giant...court jester or something of the type. Sadato didn't realize it, but what he was seeing was the giant form of Him, who had stolen the black light from the unsuspecting monsters and used it to erupt the long dormant Mount Fuji.

Frozen in fear at the sight of the erupting Mount Fuji, Sadato quickly remembered his mother, and took off running in the direction of the nearby police station.

He didn't get far before he heard the giant Him speak, though he didn't really pay attention to it. He was saying something about manipulating the lava or something...

Just then, the shaking from Mount Fuji's eruption increased even more, and an enormous wave of lava shot out of the mountain. Amazingly, Him somehow controlled it with a pair of fans embroidered with an image of his face.

Then, the most horrific moment of Sadato's life came to pass.

Him directed the wave of lava in the opposite direction, over Sadato's head...

And right into his village.

The lava crashing down into the small countryside village was like a human crushing a tiny ant, there was no hope for anyone who had the misfortune of being in the village.

Including Sadato's mother.

Of course, is wasn't too long after this that the PPGZ came in and gave Him his just desserts, sealing him in the white light and sending him to space, hopefully forever.

But for Sadato's mother, it was far too late. The sight of his village burning, though he hadn't been there all that long, sent tremors of loss throughout all of his body.

Suddenly, he felt something in the pit of his stomach, a feeling of overwhelming anger, malice, and power.

The feeling manifested itself in the form of a black aura that suddenly surrounded Sadato. Feeling the power flow through him, Sadato raised his head to the heavens and let out a long, drawn out scream.

Then, his transformation begun.

"Metal Morph!"

A small stream of black energy formed around his pointer finger on his right hand, forming a small ring with a small, black, translucent sphere on it. Inside the small sphere, there was a small, grey, 'M'.

Taking his belt buckle of of his belt, which had suddenly turned itself into a grey rectangle with an 'M' engraved into it, he found that it somehow opened up. Checking his appearance quickly in the mirror it provided, his eyes suddenly changed from their normal dark blue to an almost metal-ish grey.

Flashing a smile, he re-attached his buckle to his belt and did a quick spin-around and posed as his jacket vanished along with his sweat-pants, leaving him with a black tank-top and black shorts.

Somehow already knowing what to do, he waved his right hand over his left shoulder, then his right shoulder, and a shining black outline of a jacket drew itself in.

Flexing his arms upward, then flicking them downwards, the jacket suddenly materialized, being nearly identical to the jackets of the PPGZ, with the exception that is was a dark black, and that the sleeves went all the way down his arms. That, and the usual, 'P' that was present on the PPGZ jackets was not there, present instead was a grey, 'M', much like his belt buckle. On the back, instead of two lines swerving to make a heart, the same two lines swerved to make yet another large, 'M'.

Sadato then proceeded to give his belt buckle a good whack with his hand, which somehow created a shining black outline of long, black pants that grew out of his currently present shorts.

Doing a number of kicks and flips, Sadato then whacked his belt buckle again, which materialised the pants outline, revealing long, black jeans, much different that the skirts of the PPGZ. Aside from the numerous pockets, a few metal chains here and there completed the almost punk rock look.

He then put the finishing touches on his transformation, materialising black gloves with spike-studded bracelets, black sneakers with spike-studded anklets, and, to top it all off, a spike-studded choker.

And so, Sadato finished his transformation into Metal Morph, doing a final pose with one hand almost beckoning to an invisible opponent, as if challenging them to a fight.

After wards, the rush of energy subsided, and Sadato looked down at his hands, amazed at what he had just done.

"Wh-what was that?" he questioned nobody in particular. Then, he remembered the black aura that had come from him before the transformation.

Which led to him remembering the black light that had struck him many months before.

_It must have been that black light that did this_, he thought to himself. _But, wait, all I did was change my clothes and eye color. That's not that much._

For a moment, he felt cheated, and anger flashed through his mind. Then, the anger multiplied in his body, leading to an urge to suddenly start...breaking things. Big things. Like the city of Tokyo.

Sadato shook his head, surprised at the sudden thoughts running through his mind. _Why did I just think of that? Even if I wanted to, there's no way I could go about destroying the city. I'm just a kid. It's not like a have a giant hammer or something._

Just then, Sadato felt his right hand...change. He couldn't describe it, but his hand didn't feel like a hand anymore. It also suddenly increased in weight, though not by too much.

Lifting his right hand and examining it, the first thing he saw was that his hand had been replaced with a small, completely metal hammer growing out of his wrist.

With a yelp Sadato quickly fell back in surprise, and violently shook his hand, as though there was some sort of giant insect on it. When his hand still remained a hammer, Sadato calmed himself and focused.

_Okay... I thought of a hammer, and my hand suddenly turned into a hammer. Wait a minute... Maybe I just need to concentrate on turning it back into my hand..._

Sure enough, the hammer-hand soon melted, though its temperature remained the same, and re-formed into the shape of Sadato's hand, which then regained it's usual composition of skin.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sadato then had an idea. "Maybe," he thought out loud, "I can change myself into different things."

He then looked at his right hand again, and concentrated on the idea of a sword.

Once again, his hand re-formed, first turning itself into metal down to Sadato's wrist, then flattening itself out, then growing upwards into the general shape of a sword, before sharpening itself so that the blade was razor sharp.

Sadato grinned, flexing his arm and the sword in turn. Because his body had made the sword, he could feel every inch of it, and as he swung it through the air a few times, he recalled some books he had read as a child.

_Man,_ he thought, _I knew those stories said a sword should feel like an extension of its owner's arm, but this is ridiculous!_

Then, without even thinking, he managed to change his hand, directly from a sword, to a large, double-sided axe. From there, he went and changed from the axe, to a shovel, then, even quicker, to a huge mallet, similar to the one Buttercup used.

With each transformation of his hand, Sadato's smile became bigger, and more mischievous. He didn't realize it, but the black light that had given him his powers was in dominance when he transformed, and so it turned him as evil as it could. It worked slowly, destroying most of the goodness in Sadato's body when he was Metal Morph. And now that Sadato had gotten used to his metal abilities, the black light inside of him had just about finished his work.

"Well," he said to himself, turning his hand back to normal, "Tokyo City, congratulations. You just won a brand-new super villain."

He let out an evil chuckle, before, very suddenly, fainting on the spot. The rush of the black light for the first time had taken a toll on him, and the black light shut down his body before any permanent harm came to Sadato, though it made sure that it wouldn't happen again. Just after Sadato's body settled on the ground, he flashed grey, and he returned to his original form, his original clothes returning as well.

Moments later, a Defense Force helicopter, which was being used to investigate the area for any suspicious activity, flew over and spotted Sadato's seemingly lifeless body. Not ten minutes later, Sadato was air-lifted into the chopper and to the nearest hospital.

* * *

><p>With one parent dead and the other in prison, Sadato was decreaed an orphan by the city counsel. Though his father wasn't dead, he was in no position to care for Sadato, and even if he was released from prison, many of the prison's mental specialists said that he would have no way of caring for Sadato.<p>

And so, Sadato, at fourteen years of age, was transferred to an orphanage. Luckily, there was a kind couple who saw in Sadato what others did not. A chance for a better life. So, they adopted him without hesitation, and luckily, they lived in the city.

Though Sadato at first wasn't terribly trusting of his new parents, his mood lifted when he arrived at his new home.

And he saw the middle school that Momoko went to from his bedroom window.

* * *

><p><strong>Something about this chapter just makes me go...meh. But, it's just kidna explaining Sadato's backstory, and to that I think it did a fair job. My other concern is that I didn't do the transformation sequence very well, but let's face it, most people who write PPGZ fics don't even include transformations in their stories. Though, if you have seen the show extensively, please feel free to give me feedback on that sequence.<strong>

**Review Responses:**

**cool as chik - Well, here you go. An update. Soon. ^^**

**So, that's all from me today. Don't worry, the next chapter will have...cool stuff. Hopefully either the next chapter or the one after that will have my first fight scene. *cracks typing fingers* It's been a while since I've written a good fight scene, but I'm willing to give it a shot! *determined face***

**As always, remember to review, subscribe/favorite (wow, I sound like I'm promoting a Youtube video), and spread the word. Thanks to all! ^^  
><strong>


	3. Déjà Vu

Heart of Metal

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><p>Chapter 3: Déjà Vu<p>

* * *

><p>"I can't be late," Momoko told herself, "sensei will kill me!"<p>

This was her one thought as she ran towards the school as fast as her legs would carry her. Of course, the first day of the school year had to be the one where she slept in past the time she would have normally gotten up at. She was able to calculate, through the use of her intelligent mother, that she would be able to make it to school on if she ran fast enough.

Though Momoko would have preferred flying using her PPGZ form, she knew that doing so would not only tick off the professor, but would also have the complication of finding out where to transform on school property when there were a whole bunch of kids around.

And so, here she was, running practically for her life, though a small voice told her that the teachers would most likely be at least a little lenient on the first day of school.

Eventually, with as little breaks as she could manage, Momoko managed to make it to the school with time to spare.

"Finally," she panted, too out of breath to say another word. Then, she spotted Kaoru and Miyako sitting outside the front entrance, obviously waiting for her.

Walking, or, rather slogging, over to her friends, she barely made it to them when she did a comical face-plant into the ground.

"You okay, Momoko?" Kaoru asked. Momoko simply replied with a groan.

"I'll take that as a yes," Kaoru said. "Now c'mon! Let's go. We're gonna be late for class."

At this, Momoko decided to stop playing around, at least for the time being, and picked herself up off the ground, following her friends into the school.

Not much had changed, other than there was a new group of fifth graders, and that the old group of eighth graders had now left to go to high school. The teachers were all still the same, the hallways, the classrooms. It was going to be just another boring year, as far as many students were concerned.

Even for the three girls with secret superhero identities, they knew that the year would be more of the same. Go to class, leave halfway through to beat Mojo or the Gangreen Gang or something, and then come back.

As they walked through the hallway, talking about anything under the sun, much to Kaoru's dismay, someone suddenly tapped Momoko on the shoulder form behind.

"Hey," he said, the voice clearly indicating a male student, "you wouldn't happen to be Momoko Akatsutsumi, would ya'?"

"Yes," Momoko replied, turning around to face her questioner. Though, when she did, an audible gasp escaped her mouth, at which Kaoru and Miyako turned around as well.

"Y-you!" she cried out, surprised at the face in front of her.

"Yes, me," Dan Sasaki chuckled. Without any further words, he grabbed Momoko's shirt collar and shoved her against the wall rather painfully.  
>Momoko had experienced worse pain before, like most of the battles with Him, but that didn't mean that the shove still didn't pack a punch, almost literally.<p>

Of course, Kaoru immediately tried to intervene, but it seemed like Dan's cronies had a different idea, two of them holding her back by the shoulders. Miyako, not much, or any, of a fighter outside of her PPGZ form, simply stood back as the last of Dan's cronies took her wrist and held her in place.

"H-how are you back?" Momoko demanded to know, stuttering because her shirt was currently being lifted slightly, cutting off the slightest bit of her air supply. "You were expelled at the end of that year!"

Dan chuckled. "Well, my dad pulled a few strings, and viola," he leaned in close to Momoko's face, "here I am, back again."

Unlike the last time Momoko had seen Dan, she wasn't afraid this time. Or at least, she hid it very well, instead putting on an angry expression. Dan then released her shirt collar and she fell the few inches to the ground, almost losing her balance, but keeping it thanks to the wall behind her.

"Now," Dan began, and Momoko was almost certain of what was coming next, "where did we leave off last time we met?" He scratched his chin in mock thought before snapping his fingers. "Ah, I remember! We," he raised his fist up high, preparing to strike, "were here!"

"Jeez, Dan. Do you have some sort of violent complex against girls or something?"

All eyes in the hall, including many students that had stopped to watch the conflict, turned towards the voice that had spoken up.

"Well, this brings back memories," Dan remarked, crossing his arms at Sadato, who merely smiled and shook his head.

"Yeah, no kidding. I mean, what're the odds that I get here just as you're about to attempt to hit the same innocent girl for the _second time_?"

Murmurs went through the small crowd of students at this comment, though Dan ignored it, simply snorting at Sadato.

"So what? Are you going to," he used his fingers to make air quotes, "_protect her_ again?"

At this, both Dan and his cronies burst into laughter, though it stopped when Sadato walked in front of Momoko, shielding her, not for the first time. Dan merely punched a fist into his own open palm.

"You do know what comes next, right?" he asked Sadato, who nodded.

"Yeah, yeah," he confirmed, sounding rather bored with the whole thing. "Just get on with it."

Dan's response was to let out an angry growl and punch Sadato in the face, also not for the first time.

Though, much unlike the first time, instead of reeling back, Sadato's head merely twisted to one side for a moment, as if his feet were rooted to the spot and could not be moved.

He then turned his head back towards Dan, who was fairly surprised that his punch hadn't done much, considering that Dan was fairly strong for a kid his age.

"Not bad," Sadato said, a small dribble of blood running out of his mouth from the hit confirming its strength to those watching the event , "but I'm not moving."

"Well then," Dan countered, raising his fist again, preparing to strike again with a witty remark.

Or he would have, had someone not caught Dan's arm by the wrist, holding him back.

Looking over his shoulder to see who had committed the deed, all of the blood drained out of Dan's face when he saw the face of the school's principle.

"Well, mister Sasaki," the principle said, "I think we need to have a little chat. And don't worry," he included as he started to drag Dan off, "your father will be there too."

He then stopped and turned to all of Dan's cronies. "I suggest you all come with me, unless you want a punishment ten times worse than it already is!"

At this, Dan's cronies realized that it probably wasn't worth running, and released Miyako and Kaoru, walking after Dan and the principal, who told everyone to be safe while they waited for classes to start.

After the throng of students had thinned out a bit, Sadato turned to Momoko with a smile on his face.

"You okay?" he asked. Momoko nodded, surprised by how different Sadato was now.

Obviously, he had grown quite a bit, though Momoko had as well, but she was still only about as tall as Sadato's collarbone. His outfit consisted of a black hoodie and blue jeans. _That's a good look for him_, Momoko thought to herself.

Then, Sadato put on a puzzled expression, and he flexed his jaw, as if there was something wrong with it. He then reached inside his mouth with two fingers, and with a bit of effort, pulled out a molar, one of his back teeth.

Obviously, Momoko gasped at the sight, but Sadato merely smiled at the tooth.

"I need to thank Dan later," he remarked, "that was my last baby tooth. The dentist said that thing would _never_ come out!" He pocketed the tooth, evidently saving it for a later purpose.

"Anyways, how've you been, Momoko?" he asked casually, as if he hadn't just put himself into the line of fire for her.

Before Momoko could answer, Kaoru and Miyako rushed up to her, frantically asking if she was okay. Sadato raised an eyebrow.

"These friends of yours?" he asked. _Man, I've missed a lot_, he thought to himself.

Momoko sighed. "It's a long story," she said. Sadato smiled.

"I have a long story too," he replied, "but you go ahead first."

* * *

><p>And so, the four headed to their first class, which they happened to have together since it was luckily a study hall, and while they waited for the teacher to come, who was apparently running late, Momoko told Sadato how she met Kaoru and Miyako, also introducing Sadato to her friends in the process. Obviously, she didn't tell him the entire truth, she instead told a story that they met at Kintoukido shop, which Sadato bought into with no suspicion.<p>

Sadato also told the story of why he had suddenly disappeared after the beginning of that school year. He also didn't tell the whole truth, instead leaving out the bits about the black light, though not excluding the fate of his mother, which earned him many sympathies from the girls.

For Miyako, it was nice meeting an old acquaintance of Momoko's, and she quickly warmed up to Sadato, finding him to be a nice, caring person. The fact that he stepped in and took a punch for Momoko only helped her opinion of him.

Kaoru appreciated that Sadato had stepped in to protect Momoko as well, and noted that he could take a hit. She found his quick wit to be entertaining, and his personality to be generally likeable.

Then there was Momoko, who thanked Sadato endless times for taking the hit for her, to which he very bashfully rubbed the back of his head. She was happy that she finally knew why he had disappeared after their first encounter, and that he was not likely to move again thanks to his new parents. Though, her heart went out to him, for his loses were great considering his father was in prison and his mother was deceased.

Suddenly, in the middle of their conversation Momoko's conversation with Kaoru on the roof of the lab came up in her mind.

"_Maybe he'll appear like some kind of superhero or something, protecting you from harm!"_

The realization was almost enough to bring a blush to her face, though she was self-conscious enough to resist the urge.

_Could...could Sadato be...?_

"Momoko?" Sadato asked, seeing his friend lost in thought. "You okay?"

At her name, Momoko quickly shook off her thoughts and put on a smile for Sadato. "Yeah," she re-assurred, "I'm fine."

Sadato, just the littlest bit suspicious at first, simply nodded, deciding to let it go for the time being.

It was then that the teacher finally arrived, and the first day of school officially began.

As one would expect, no teachers assigned homework, other than bunches of papers that needed to be signed by the parents of the children. Other than that, it was all introduction activities and basic question and answer sessions.

It was during the second to last class of the day, where Sadato was without the girls due to him being in eighth grade and the girls in seventh, that a dull ache began settling itself in Sadato's head. At first he tried to ignore it, but the more he tried to focus on the class in front of him, the more the ache seemed to increase. Soon, it turned from a dull ache to a throbbing, then escalated even further until Sadato was clutching his head. The teacher noticed this and asked if he was alright.

"Well," Sadato confessed, "I've got one heck of a migraine." The teacher nodded.

"You should go see the nurse if it's that bad," he suggested. Sadato nodded, thanked the teacher, got up, and left the classroom, heading in the direction of the school's nurse.

As he walked down the hallway, the pain in his head continued to increase, prompting Sadato to curse at it under his breath. As he turned a corner, he saw a set of stairs that led up to the rooftop.

Suddenly, the pain in his head began to fade, and a feeling emerged in the pit of his stomach, as if trying to say that he should go up the stairs. Curious as to whether or not this pain was really a simple migraine, he went up the stairs and opened the door to the roof.

As he walked out onto the roof, the pain in his head faded back to practically not being there, and the feeling in his stomach vanished, but he then heard a strange sound.

His belt buckle was flashing a dark black, then back to it's normal grey color, then back again, as if there was some sort of light inside the buckle, which there most certainly wasn't. It also gave off a faint pulsing sound, though there was no such speakers or electronics to do such a thing.

_What the hell?_ Sadato thought to himself. _How in the world does a metal belt buck-_

Then, he remembered the black light, and the transformation that had occurred on the day Mount Fuji had exploded.

_Maybe,_ he theorized, _this headache is a sign that I should transform or something..._

"Well," he said aloud to himself, "it's worth a shot!"

"Metal Morph!"

One pose-filled transformation later, Metal Morph, or just Metal for short, stood where Sadato once was.

Grinning that the pain in his head was now gone, he felt an evil urge rise inside of him, and he didn't resist it. Instead, due to the black light's influence on his mind, he gladly accepted it, and chuckled evily.

"Well, looks like it's time to test out these powers for real!"

"But first," he said to himself. He had to test out one final power: flight.

And what better way than to get a good running start and jump off the school's rooftop.

Of course, having a good grasp of how his powers worked, and having seen the PPGZ fly countless times, it wasn't two seconds of falling before Metal took off like a rocket into the sky.

"Haha!" he laughed, overjoyed at the feeling of weightlessness in the sky. "This is great! Finally, it's time for a rampage!"

And Metal flew off into the city, leaving a black trail of light in his wake, preparing for his first official appearance to the people of Tokyo.

* * *

><p><strong>Dun, dun, DUUUUUUNNNN! So yeah. At last, PLOT DEVELOPMENT! HAHA! Anyways, I think you can guess what the next chapter is gonna be: action. Now, I haven't written very much action in my short...'career' as a fanfiction writer, but I certainly am going to try my best. ^^<strong>

**Hopefully now that this story has more chapters, people with accounts will start reading it. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate any review, anonymous or accounted, but I prefer accounted because they usually subscribe and stuff.**

**Review Responses:**

**cool as chik - Yeah, it is sad, but it'll come into play later in the plot. Thanks for the compliments, though. ^^**

**Nana - I'll be sure to do that. ^^ I guess I describe my characters well, don't I? (EGOTISTICAL)**

**As per usual guys, **remember to review, favorite/add to alerts, and spread the word. Thanks!** (Note: Chapter 4 is barely started, so it might be a while. ^^')  
><strong>


	4. New Foes

Heart of Metal

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><p>Chapter 4: New Foes<p>

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><p>When the girls were at school, Professor Utonium and Ken would usually just stay at the lab and experiment with random problems, sometimes solving them...and sometimes having to replace many exploded test tubes and beakers. They would sometimes play with Peach, or watch as the girls fought off Mojo yet again, or any other thing to entertain them. Today, however, they were in for a surprise.<p>

It was relatively normal in the lab; the professor was mixing some chemicals together and observing their reactions, while Ken was doing some mathematical work, attempting to figure out a complex equation. Peach was taking a nap next to Ken's chair on the floor, he would have preferred to be on the table, but he didn't want to distract Ken too much.

Suddenly, Peach's ears perked up, and he woke from his nap, sniffing the air curiously. When his robotic nose confirmed the scent he was detecting, he shot up from his lying down position and stood, growling angrily at seemingly nothing.

Ken noticed Peach's growling and looked at him from his chair. "What is it, Peach?"

Peach responded with what Ken expected, "I smell a monster da wan!"

Ken sighed. "Who is it this time?"

Peach sniffed the air again, attempting to figure out who exactly he was smelling. But when Peach had sniffed for a good several seconds, he turned to Ken with a confused look.

"This is someone new da wan," he said. Ken's eyes widened in surprise.

"Someone new?" he asked. "I'm don't think that's possible. Him is gone, there are no more black particles. How could the black light be in someone new?" Peach simply shook his head.

"I don't know da wan. We should check the cameras in the city da wan."

Ken nodded and got up off his chair, heading for the main computer. The professor, overhearing the conversation and also taking an interest, put down the chemicals he was experimenting with and joined Ken by the computer.

"Any luck so far?" he asked his son, who was flipping through security cameras in the city one by one.

"Not yet," Ken replied, "but I'm not even sure Peach really-"

Suddenly, their investigation was cut short as an emergency video call from the mayor was received by the computer. Immediately, the mayor's face appeared on the large monitor above the computer.

"Professor! We've got trouble! There's a monster rampaging through the city!"

"We thought as much," the professor replied. "Where is it?"

"He's right outside my office, take a look!" The mayor then seemingly pressed a button on his own console, and the monitor went to static for a moment before showing an aerial view of the crime.

A figure was floating in the air, garbed a black jacket and black pants, even sporting black hair. On the back of his jacket, two lines swerved upwards to make a large, silver, 'M'. Instead of hands, he had two enormous metal sledgehammers, bigger than his own body, and he was swinging them into any nearby building he could.

Ken, the professor, and Peach all took a moment to gawk at the boy's awesome power before he suddenly stared directly at the camera. The boy grinned evilly and his left hand suddenly morphed into a small revolver, which he then pointed at the camera and fired, effectively destroying the camera.

After a second of static, the view once again went to the Mayor. "Send out Powerpuff Z immediately, professor!"

"Right!" the professor replied, nodding. He then turned to Peach. "Peach, give the order!"

Peach's response was to do a little dance of his own and bark out, "Powerpuff Z move out da wan!"

* * *

><p><em>Geez, can't we get through one class where we don't have to sit through these boring question and answer sessions?<em>

Unfortunately for Momoko, the teacher answered her silent question by sending around another boring question that she had already answered a hundred times that day. One look at Kaoru and Miyako told her that they were thinking the exact same thing.

Momoko sighed, and her mind wandered to what had happened earlier that day, and the old friend that she had re-encountered. Then, of course, her mind wandered to the thought of Kaoru's comment on the roof of the lab again.

_Oh stop it! _she chastised herself internally. _Sadato doesn't like me like that, and I really don't like him like that. Though, he is kinda cute, I'll admit..._

Her thoughts were interrupted suddenly by her belt's compact flashing and giving off a faint pulsing sound, meaning that the professor had detected trouble, and the PPGZ were needed.

Right in sync, the three girls raised their hands and said in unison, "Sensei!"

At this, the teacher turned his head to the three girls, and again, in unison, they said, "We all have really bad migraines! We're going to see the nurse!"

And just like that, before the teacher could even process what was going on, the three girls ran out of the room, and headed straight for the roof, though everyone else thought they were going to the nurse's office.

Once they were all on the roof, Momoko flipped open her compact, and the professor came on the small monitor located inside.

"Professor," she asked, "what've we got?" The professor looked at the girls grimly.

"Well," he began, "I don't exactly know. He's definitely a monster with the black light in him, but other than that, I can't tell you much. Be careful, girls. He seems powerful. Don't take him lightly."

"Right, professor," Momoko reassured, closing her compact. She then nodded to Kaoru and Miyako, and the three proceeded to transform.

"Hyper Blossom!"

"Rolling Bubbles!"

"Powered Buttercup!"

After a very flashy and pose-filled transformation, the Powerpuff Girls Z stood where three normal girls once were.

In a flash of red, blue and green, the three flew off into the city to confront their new enemy.

Once the girls ascended high enough, they were able to see a large column of smoke rising from a specific area of the city.

"There!" Blossom pointed out, and the three quickly flew at top speed towards the smoke.

* * *

><p><em>SMASH! BOOM! CRASH!<em>

The sounds of the city being destroyed might sound like the worst sound in the world to others, but to Metal, they were music to his ears.

"Ha!" he shouted out as he took another swing at a nearby building with his hand, which was now a sledgehammer. "This is child's play! Where's the challenge!"

His answer came not three seconds after he asked the question, in the form of a certain pink yo-yo smacking him rather hard in the back of the head.

After letting out an obligatory, "Ow!" Metal turned to see who his attackers were, and was greeted by the sight of the PPGZ, with Blossom winding her yo-yo back up after her strike.

Metal couldn't help but grin. "So," he said, "we meet at last, Powerpuff Z."

Blossom was surprised. "How do you know of us, monster?" she asked him. Metal put on a fake hurt face.

"Monster?" he said, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Now that's just mean. If you want my name, it's Metal Morph, but you can call me Metal for short. As for how I know of you, you saved the whole city from a freaking volcano. Explanation enough?"

Blossom internally admitted that he had a point. It wasn't like they weren't popular around Tokyo, they even had a gold statue at one point.

"Okay," she conceded, "that explains how you know us. But, why haven't we seen you before? We got rid of the source of the black light that day, and you never showed yourself before."

"True," Metal confessed, "and to be honest, I can't really answer the question. All I know is that these powers are awesome," he stared at the girls menacingly, "and I'm gonna use 'em however I want!" He grinned evilly, and changed his left hand back into a normal hand, while his right turned into a sword. All the girls were surprised at the sudden morph, though not too much; they knew the limitless possibilities of the black light.

"Let's go then!" Buttercup suddenly spoke up, calling out her hammer for battle.

"I hope you're ready!" Bubbles called out, still sounding a bit cheery, while at the same time summoning her bubble rod.

Blossom said nothing, for she already had her weapon out, but also because something was bothering her. While Metal said he couldn't answer her question about appearing only now, she had a feeling he was hiding something from them.

Her thoughts were interrupted, however, by a shout form Metal as he charged at the three girls with his sword arm.

He initially aimed for Blossom, taking a swing at her head, which she avoided by floating backwards.

"_Lotte Ghana Shoot_!" she shouted out, while shooting her yo-yo at Metal with great speed.

Though it moved fast, Metal moved faster, sidestepping the weapon easily and lifting his sword up, then swinging it at the string, attempting to cut it. Though, after a mighty slash at the string, instead of it severing like Metal thought it would, his sword was instead cut off at the point it made contact with the string, the upper portion sliding slowly and comically off the lower.

"What the hell?!" Metal exclaimed to the air. "Well," he decided as he regenerated the upper half of the sword, "guess I can't break their weapons."

He soon got his mind back into the fight, when he heard another one of the girls shout out another hissatsu attack name.

"_Bubble Champagne_!" Bubbles shouted, swinging her bubble wand twice, sending a barrage of rainbow-colored bubbles Metal's way, who simply grinned.

"Ha," he shouted, "too easy!" He then extended his left hand forward, and his fingers all morphed into very sharp needles, which he then fired off like a machine gun at the barrage of bubbles.

Though Bubbles' bubbles were several fold more durable then any normal bubble, they couldn't stand up to a barrage of extremely sharp needles, and so they popped loudly.

Bubbles looked surprised, though Buttercup had a feeling that something like that would happen.

"Looks like it's my turn!" she shouted, getting a firm grip on her hammer.

"_Megaton Dunk_!" she cried out, launching herself above Metal, then bringing her hammer down in a massive swing, infused with her own energy.

Metal's response was to put his forearms together, which then melded together and then expanded outwards to form a large, grey shield, which Buttercup's attack then struck.

Though Buttercup felt confident that she could break through the shield, she was surprised when the shield remained in one piece when it was struck.

"W-what?!" she stuttered out, before Metal took advantage of her momentary lapse of concentration to shove her off of him. Once Buttercup was off his shield, he separated it in two, turning the shield back into his normal arms.

Blossom and Buttercup both gritted their teeth while Bubbles simply looked worried, she didn't like to grit her teeth. They all knew that the fight ahead wasn't going to be easy, and that Metal was unlike anything they had ever faced before.

"What," he mocked, spreading his arms out wide, as if gesturing for someone to come at him, "was that it? That was pathetic! I guess if you guys aren't gonna step it up," he then turned his right arm into a large double-sided axe, and his left into a machine gun, "then I will!"

Lifting his gun arm up in a flash, he took quick aim and began firing rapidly at the girls. Not aiming in any of them in particular, he simply sprayed a wide swath of bullets in their general direction.

Luckily for the girls, their super-human reflexes allowed them to dodge the bullets, though with not much room for error, and the poses they needed to make in order to dodge were comical to say the least, which made Metal enjoy himself even more.

"Dance, Powerpuffs," he commanded, though it wasn't as if they really had a choice in the matter, "dance!"

In the midst of all that bullet dodging, one was bound to make an error at one point or another, and after a few seconds, Blossom was the first, a bullet finding it's mark on her left shoulder.

Though she wasn't exactly bullet proof, the small rounded piece of metal did not pierce her as expected, though it still hurt very badly.

Clutching at her shoulder with her right hand, she said back to the girls, "We need to think of something!"

"Well," Buttercup replied, still dodging bullets from Metal's gun, "you're the leader, you think of something!"

Just as Blossom was about to make a witty comeback, the bullets suddenly stopped flying.

Confused for a moment, Blossom turned back towards Metal, only to be greeted by the sight of him rushing at her, axe in hand, or rather, hand in the shape of an axe, and she barely dodged a diagonal swing form Metal.

Metal then quickly morphed the axe back into a sword, and took a stab at Blossom's midsection, which quickly moved upwards to dodge the sharp point.

Metal then heard a shout form his left, and saw Buttercup taking a swing at him with her hammer.

Bending himself backwards to dodge the swing, he then flipped backwards, and in the process, kicked Buttercup in the stomach with his steel-toed shoe.

Keeping the momentum of the flip, he kept Buttercup on his shoe throughout it, and just as he was about to complete the flip, he extended his leg, flinging Buttercup off his shoe towards the ground.

"_Bubble Boing_!" Bubble shouted, quickly swinging her bubble wand towards Buttercup, releasing a large bubble, which successfully caught Buttercup and halted her descent.

Flying down and expecting thanks, Bubbles was surprised when Buttercup immediately flew back upwards and summoned her hammer again.

"Now you've really got me pissed!" she shouted at Metal, who reeled back a bit, somewhat nervous of Buttercup's apparent anger.

"_Swing Sonic_!" she screamed, swinging her hammer in such a way that a shock wave of green energy shot out of the face, headed right towards Metal at super speed.

Unable to morph in time, Metal simply raised his arms in defense as the attack struck him head-on, erupting in a large cloud of smoke.

"Did it!" Buttercup shouted in victory, thinking that her attack had defeated her opponent. But, when the smoke cleared, it revealed the still-standing form of Metal, the only sign of damage being that his gloves were slightly torn, and around the area where the blast hit, his skin was burned away to reveal a metal shell underneath.

"W-what?" Buttercup exclaimed. "What are you?"

Metal lowered his arms, the burnt skin on which began to heal over at an extraordinary rate, and smiled devilishly. "The first villain to ever give you a challenge, apparently."

Buttercup was about to angrily say something back, but Blossom stopped her by putting her arm in front of her.

"You said to come up with an idea," she reminded, referencing her earlier comment. "Well, I think I've just got one." She smiled then, and huddled Buttercup and Bubbles together, explaining her idea.

Metal furrowed his eyebrows in anger. "Hey! What're you whispering about?"

After a few seconds, the girls broke their huddle and nodded to one another.

"Let's do it!" they all said in unison.

Blossom then moved forward and shot her yo-yo at Metal in rapid succession, attempting to get his attention.

"Ha, is that all you've got?" she teased him while he dodged shot after shot. Metal gritted his teeth at every dodge, getting angrier each time.

"Why you little!" he eventually erupted after several more dodges. "I'll tear you apart!"

At this, immediately after his next dodge, Metal charged at Blossom, right arm yet again turned into a blade.

In response, Blossom turned around and flew away from Metal, which one would expect in her situation. Though, unbeknownst to Metal, she and the other girls had a plan up their sleeves.

Turning his left arm into a gun, Metal took several shots at Blossom, though due to the fact that both of them were moving at very fast speeds, his shots all missed.

Eventually, Blossom saw what she was looking for, and made her way towards it, Metal following her, just as she knew he would.

Landing on the roof of the targeted building, Blossom simply stared Metal down, waiting for a certain action to be taken by her teammate.

"Now," Metal said, pointing his sword arm directly at Blossom, "I've got you!"

Just as Blossom was about to stall for more time, she saw Bubbles silently float behind Metal, and grinned.

"What's so funny?" Metal angrily questioned. Blossom just crossed her arms.

"It's just that you say you've got me," she answered, "when in reality, we've got you!"

"_Balloon Stickiness_!"

Metal turned around at the shout of another hissatsu attack, only to be greeted by a very large bubble directly in front of him.

Reacting on pure instinct, he swung at the bubble with his sword, popping it. What he didn't expect was that when the bubble popped, it coated him in a sticky residue, pinning his arms to his sides, and trapping him in place.

"W-what is this!" he asked. He then got his answer from Buttercup, and when he turned his head towards where her voice came from, his pupils dilated in realization of what they had planned.

"This," Buttercup answered as she readied her hammer, "is your defeat!"

With that, she called out, "_Hurricane Lutz_!" and sent out a swirl of energy directly at the supports...

Of the water tower present on the top of the building.

Though the steel supports had been built to last, they easily yielded to Buttercup's attack, and soon, the entire tower came crashing down in Metal's direction.

Of course, Metal attempted to escape the stickiness that was holding him in place, but no matter how hard he pushed his arms outwards, he was unable to break free.

And so, the water tower came crashing down several feet in front of Metal, releasing an enormous wave of water directly at him.

Metal, at least for a few moments, was submerged in the liquid, and after about five seconds or so, the tower had completely emptied, and the water around Metal faded to reveal him, the same as before, with the exception being that the sticky residue form before had been washed away by the wave of water, and the fact that he was hunched over, breathing very heavily.

Though it could not be seen, Metal felt completely drained from all of the water that had been dumped on him. Previously, Metal had believed that water might affect him in some way, being that he was made of metal, but he had no idea that it would literally drain him of all his energy.

Metal grimaced at the sudden lack of energy in his body. When he attempted to morph his arm into a sword, the only thing he got was his hand turning into metal and bubbling slightly, as if trying to morph, but not being able to.

"Well, Metal," said Blossom, and Metal looked up at her, "this makes things a lot easier." She, of course, was referring to the fact that Metal could no longer morph himself, and she now knew exactly what was going to happen.

With that, the three girls did what they did best: combined their attacks at the same time.

"_Botamochi Spin_!"

"_Bubble Popper_!"

"_Swing Sonic_!"

The three hissatsu attacks fired at the same time equaled one thing for Metal: a one-way ticket to be launched into the sky.

But, as Metal flew rather comically into the sky, he shouted one last warning, though trying to be ominous, it was difficult when he was flying away at a high velocity.

"I'll be back~!"

As he vanished into the distance, the girls stood and watched with, not triumphant faces as one might expect, but with faces of unease, for they knew that he would be back, and next time...

He might not be so easy to beat.

* * *

><p><strong>Holy crapsicles... I can't believe that I just wrote an action section. I haven't written one in a while, so I hope that this is at least decent.<strong>

**A note to fans of the show: I recommend listening to the soundtrack from the show (Japanese soundtrack) while reading this; it makes it seem more like the show with the music.**

**Review Responses:**

**cool as chik - Yeah, I'm weird, thinking of things like that. ^^ Anyways, I recommend you make an account on the site so you can easily keep track of updates to your favorite stories. Anyways, don't worry about Dan, I don't plan on him coming back for the story.**

**dragonroses - Thanks for all the kind words. I hope the action chapter lives up to your expectations. ^^**

****As always, remember to review, favorite/add to alerts, and spread the word. Thanks for reading! (status of Chapter 5: Not even started yet, will start soon)  
><strong>**


	5. Revelations

Heart of Metal

* * *

><p>Chapter 5: Revelations<p>

* * *

><p>Once Metal had been defeated, the girls wasted no time in hurrying back to the school, where they transformed back into their normal selves and hurried back to class.<p>

"We're better!" they chimed in unison once they had entered the classroom, and sat in their designated seats.

As the rest of the class dragged on, Momoko couldn't help but think of the fight that she and her friends had just gone through. Mainly, how exactly Metal could have his powers in the first place, when he had never shown himself before and there weren't any possible ways he could get his hands on the black light.

She was about to think about it more, when the bell suddenly rang, signaling all of the students to move on to the final class of the day.

As she arose from her seat, she glanced at Kaoru, who, in the process of getting up, winced and clutched at her stomach a bit.

"Are you okay?" Miyako asked her, concern thick in her voice.

"I should be fine," Kaoru assurred, putting on a face that she hoped would quell her friend's worries. "That kick I got during the fight just hurt a lot is all. It'll heal by tomorrow."

Miyako nodded, though still a little worried, she knew that Kaoru was strong and would be fine in almost no time.

Leaving the classroom and going in the direction of their next class, Momoko couldn't help but look out for Sadato in the throng of students moving one way and another.

Eventually, though, at one point, she did in fact see him, but when she waved and smiled, he passed her by as if she didn't exist. In that moment, Momoko noted a very angry and frustrated look on Sadato's face.

Once he had passed her, Momoko's hand, which had been raised to wave to him, fell back to her side, and her face saddened.

Miyako noticed the change, as well as the expression on Sadato's face, and attempted to reassure her friend.

"It's okay, he's probably just angry at a teacher or something."

Though Momoko knew she was right, she couldn't help thinking that there was something more to her friend's anger.

_I'll find out later,_ she conceded internally. _Hopefully by then he'll be less angry..._

* * *

><p>The source of Sadato's anger, obviously, was his recent defeat at the hands of the PPGZ as Metal Morph.<p>

He, a brand new super villain who was just making his first appearance was beaten, and apparently without much effort. Just the thought alone made his blood boil!

Approaching his last class, Sadato breathed deeply a few times, attempting to calm himself, at least for the rest of the day. While there were other students that were sad it was the new year, there really weren't any that were as angry as he was, and he didn't want to stand out too much.

Though Sadato tried to focus as hard as he could on the last class of the day, his mind kept drifting, though not to his defeat as one would expect.

Instead, his mind was distracted by the girl who he had saved earlier: Momoko.

_Y'know, _he thought to himself, _maybe I should take her and her friends out for a snack or something, to sorta celebrate our meeting, which shouldn't break up anytime soon._

And so, though he tried to make it look like he was paying attention, he was really planning a sort of, 'date,' for him and the girls, though he didn't really consider it that.

In the midst of all the planning, he somehow forgot all about his anger over his defeat, and when he found his mind going back to it, he found that he really didn't mind that much.

Of course, in the process of internal planning, his mind wandered to a certain subject more than once.

Momoko.

Exactly, Sadato was considering exactly what had been said earlier, when he and the girls were talking before classes had started. Specifically, the bit where both Kaoru and Miyako mentioned that Momoko had a thing for boys.

Though Sadato tried to dismiss it, there was a small part of him inside that felt disappointment in Momoko's strange obsession. As hard as he tried to deny and shake the feeling off, it stayed, ever so persistent.

_C'mon, man, _he chastised himself, _you may have saved her from a vicious, wild Dan, but that doesn't mean she has to like you! And that definitely doesn't mean you have to like her!_

_Though_, he admitted, _she is kinda...nice looking, I suppose._

At that thought, the final bell rang, signaling all of the students that they were free to go. Most ran out of the building, eager to return home or to do other things they had planned.

For Sadato, he exited the building at an average pace, and waited by the entrance for the girls, who, after not too much time, also arrived.

"Ah, there you girls are," he said to them. "I have something planned today."

While Miyako and Kaoru expressed some curiosity, Momoko expressed both that and confusion.

"Hold on," she said, and Sadato turned to look at her, "weren't you really angry at something before?"

"Well, yeah," Sadato admitted, "but I got over it." It was the truth, in the midst of his planning his anger had faded, and though he still wasn't too happy about his embarrassing defeat, there wasn't anything he could do about it, and so he let it go, at least for the time being.

Momoko, not really knowing how to continue the question, simply nodded, letting it go for the time being.

"Anyways," Sadato continued, getting back on topic, "I've got a plan that, to celebrate our little reunion, and first meeting," he gestured in Miyako's and Koaru's directions, "we go out for snacks, my treat!"

At, 'snacks,' Momoko's eyes lit up, and her face put on the biggest smile it could muster.

Suddenly, Miyako had an idea, and pulled Kaoru aside for a moment.

"Kaoru," she said quietly to her, "I think we should let those two get re-acquainted alone." She winked then, passing along a silent message with it.

Kaoru quickly caught on, getting what Miyako had in mind. Though Miyako was kind and caring almost all of the time, she could be devilish when she got the inkling.

Turning around, in sync, the two said, "Sorry, but we've got an appointment we need to keep!"

With that, they ran off, out of the schoolyard, and towards their own houses, not really going to any appointment.

Staring confusedly at what had just happened, Sadato began to say something about how it was too bad they couldn't join him, when Momoko spoke up.

"We _have_ to go to Kintoukido!" she said, and with that, grabbed Sadato by the arm and dragged him off so he could buy her all sorts of sweets at the shop.

* * *

><p><em>Later, at Kintoukido...<em>

* * *

><p>"I can't believe you have a snack addiction, too!"<p>

"Yeah, well, I also have an addiction to keeping my wallet full, but I think you took care of that."

"Sorry," Momoko replied, a sheepish expression on her face. Sadato just smiled.

"Ah, it's fine," he assured, "I did say it was my treat, after all." Momoko's response was to smile and continue chowing down on her food.

While he only had one tray of food that wasn't filled very much in front of him, Momoko had four, and they were all about five times as filled as his was.

While Sadato liked snacks, he really only went overboard during special events, like holidays or birthdays. Momoko, on the other hand...

Well, to her, it seemed like every day was a holiday entitled, 'National Stuff Your Face Day'.

As sad as he was to not be able to fell the weight of cash in his wallet, the joy on his friend's face was more than worth it.

"So," Sadato asked, hoping to start a conversation, "what exactly have you been up to the past year-and-a-half?"

At this, Momoko stopped eating suddenly, and took a long pause, attempting to think up an answer that didn't give away her secret or raise any suspicion.

"Well," she began slowly, "I usually come here after school and then I...uh..." Her mind began to draw a blank as she realized that it might not be the best option to say that she hung out at the National Science Lab.

"Yes?" Sadato asked, prompting her to continue. Momoko's mind raced to come up with a realistic answer.

"Well, I usually...hang out with Kaoru and Miayko...wherever." She did a mental face-palm at how lame the sentence sounded, but breathed an internal sigh of relief when Sadato seemed to buy into it, merely nodding and biting into a piece of his food.

"What about you?" she asked then. "What do you do most of the time?"

Sadato swallowed his food before replying. "Well, honestly, I just waste tons of time playing video games and browsing the internet. But, occasionally, I go to the gym and work out a bit, just to make sure all the snacks I eat don't make me fat."

"Yeah, Kaoru mentioned something like that would happen if I kept up my current eating streak." She, of course, didn't mention the fact that she easily burned off all the extra calories when she fought, but that was expected.

"Well, you've had an addiction for this long, you seem fine. I think Kaoru's point is invalid."

"Good point."

Afterwards, an uncomfortable silence followed, where the only sounds were the crunches of snacks as the two ate.

Of course, in such a silence, one is bound to let their mind wander, in the hope that a topic for conversation can be found. At the time, Sadato's mind wandered back to Kaoru and Miyako mentioning that Momoko had a thing for cute-looking boys, and he decided that it wouldn't hurt to have a conversation about that.

"So," he started again, "you apparently also have a thing for boys?" he asked, and Momoko was glad they had at least broken the silence, even if it was focusing mainly on her.

"Yeah," she admitted, "I suppose. Though I still really haven't found the one, I'm always looking."

"How come then," he asked, a pout plastered on his face, "you haven't gone after me yet? Am I not cute enough or something?"

Momoko was taken by surprise at the question, and, while blushing form embarrassment, she stuttered to find an answer that wouldn't offend her friend or give him the wrong idea, but Sadato suddenly smiled widely.

"I'm just joking you," he assured. Momoko merely stared in surprise, while Sadato chuckled.

"Y'know," he said, "you should see the look on your face, it's priceless."

That snapped Momoko out of her temporary mini-trance, and she put on the best angry face she could muster, while Sadato's chuckle escalated into a full-blown laugh.

"Hey," Momoko challenged, "that wasn't funny!"

"Beg to differ!" Sadato managed to get out between laughs. Momoko's only response was to lightly slap him on the arm, before smiling herself and giggling along with the joke he had pulled.

_Wow,_ she thought, _he's actually really funny. Funnier than most guys I go after. He also actually seems to care a lot more than most guys._

Then, Sadato looked at his watch and his eyes widened at the time.

"Woah," he said, "it's already five o' clock. Better get going." With that, he got up, but what he didn't expect was that Momoko would get up as well.

"You're not gonna finish your food?" Sadato asked. "I paid good money for it," he joked.

"Oh!" Momoko gasped, realizing her mistake. "Just a sec."

She then went over to the counter and got several styrofoam containers and some plastic bags, loading her remaining snacks into the containers, then putting the containers in the bags.

Though she had to use four bags, she eventually finished, though the bags were very heavy. Sadato saw the strain on her face, and casually said, "Here, I'll carry those for you."

Momoko was surprised at his act of kindness, and handed him the heavy bags, which he didn't seem to carry with ease as she had expected.

"You don't look like you're faring much better," she pointed out. Sadato just smiled.

"Yeah," he grunted out, obviously straining at the weight of the bags, "but it's only courteous."

As he walked out of the shop, still holding the abnormally heavy bags of food, Momoko could only stare at his retreating figure.

How many people had done something like that for her? None, at least, none of the boys she had aimed for in the past.

_Wow,_ she thought again, _he's really nice too. Most guys I go after are either uninterested or are total jerks. Sadato is...different. But in a really good way. M-maybe..._

Surprised at her internal stuttering, Momoko found she just couldn't bring herself to think that one specific thought.

_W-why am I s-suddenly like this!_ she questioned herself. _For c-crying out l-loud, stuttering in p-public is one thing b-but stuttering w-while thinking is a-another!_

Composing herself, she proceeded to follow after Sadato, realizing that he most likely had no idea where her house was, and she didn't want to leave him with those bags any longer than necessary.

* * *

><p>Luckily, Momoko didn't live too far away from Kintoukido, and so Sadato wasn't made to suffer too long, though he did breath a sigh of relief when he saw Momoko point out her house nearby.<p>

Knocking at the door, the two were surprised that nobody came to answer it. Finding the door unlocked, they walked in, and Momoko found a small note lying on the kitchen counter.

_Gone out to dinner and a movie. Don't worry, it's a ghost movie, you wouldn't like it. Be back around nine or so. Kuriko is at a friend's house. We'll pick her up when we leave. There's ramen in the pantry if you get hungry._

_- Mom & Dad_

Turning around at a gasp of relief, Momoko found Sadato hunched over, breathing heavily from the weight of the bags filled with food.

"You..." he began, pausing to take several gulping breathes. "I'm never taking you out for food again!"

Momoko could only laugh at her friends' comment, though she made a note to eat her food and not bring home a whole bunch next time. After all, their pantry was already far too full of food as it was.

"Well," she said, prompting Sadato to straighten his posture, "I won't make you put these away, so I guess that's all the help I'll need."

"Alright," Sadato acknowledged. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then," he said somewhat awkwardly, not exactly knowing what to say next. With that, he made his way towards the door.

Though, he was stopped when Momoko suddenly said, "Wait!"

Surprised at her mini outburst, Sadato stopped in his tracks, hands in his pockets, and turned his head towards Momoko, who only spoke out because a sudden feeling bubbling up in her chest had told her to.

Scrambling in her mind for something to say, she managed to get out, "Thanks for everything tonight!"

Sadato merely stared for a moment, and Momoko thought that he might question the motive behind her sudden outburst, but he suddenly smiled, and did a sort of two-finger salute.

"No problem," he replied. "Maybe we can do it again when my wallet's full or something." With that, he walked out the door, closing it behind him.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Momoko began the process of organizing the various snacks into their locations in her pantry. When she had finished, she took out the papers that needed to be signed by her parents, signed where she needed to, and put them on the kitchen table for her parents to sign later.

Since it was only around six, and her bedtime was a designated nine o' clock, Momoko plonked herself down onto her living room couch and turned on the TV.

Flipping through the channels to get to her favorite action-anime channel, one of the fleeting images caught her attention.

Flipping back through the channels, she eventually found the one she had seen, and discovered that it was a romance program, and it was in the middle of some scene where the two main characters were in a field bathed in sunset, and were whispering whatever to each other.

Then, as one would expect from that sort of show, they kissed. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Would the Momoko from around a week ago have watched this show...well, she wouldn't have watched it at all. She would have discovered that it was a romance and then flipped back to her anime.

But, the current Momoko instead felt something rise in the pit of her stomach at the final scene of the program. At first, she thought it was nothing. But as it grew, she tried to figure out exactly what it was.

Then it hit her. She was feeling longing. More than anything, she wanted to be that movie star at that particular moment.

Then, her mind wandered to who she could possibly share a moment with like that. Then, she remembered the frog prince, and a shudder followed.

Forgetting that moment, as she did every time, she tried to think again, but nobody came to mind. All and any of the boys she had gone after in the past had never liked her that much.

Then, the memories of the night entered her mind. The laughs she had had with Sadato, not only talking at the shop, but also at the way home. She remembered his kindness in not only using most to all of his hard-earned money buying her food, but also carrying most of that food back to her house, though it obviously wore him out.

Yet again, she dared to think the thought, though now that she was alone, she didn't have to worry about anybody noticing the rather large blush that slowly made its way onto her face.

_C-could Sadato really be..._

* * *

><p>Unbeknownst to Momoko, at that time, Sadato was in his own room, watching Internet videos on his personal laptop.<p>

Sadato often thought about love when he was alone. He had a belief, though it wasn't exactly religious, that love was a powerful thing, and it was almost like his mind had a rule to always have a crush on somebody.

Before Mt. Fuji had erupted, he had been thinking of a certain girl who lived close to him in the village, but after the eruption, she had been relocated to a very distant part of the city, and though Sadato kept in contact, his crush never really took off.

Now, as he saw no videos that interested him, his mind wandered to the events of the night, most notably the girl he had spent it with.

Normally, Sadato wasn't one to blush in front of other people. But since he was alone at the time, a deep scarlet hue enveloped his face.

_I wonder, _he thought to himself, _about Momoko. We have quite a bit in common, not the least of which is that we both have a snack addiction, well, I at least sort of do, and that we both like manga. I guess...maybe...she could be..._

And unknown to both children, at nearly the exact same time, they both thought what their friend could possibly mean to them.

_The one?_

* * *

><p><strong>*breathes* DONE! THERE! Holy... I hope this doesn't come off as a crap chapter, which I kinda think it is, but if you guys like it, then it's fine I guess.<strong>

**Anyways, so yeah, this is where the romance comes in, something the original show somewhat lacked. Now, I know what some people are thinking. "NO! RRBZxPPGZ FOREVERZ!" At least, that's what some idiots are probably thinking. Here's the thing:**

**The RRBZ aren't bad characters, and I feel that if I really tried, or any other writer for that matter, then you could somehow get a good relationship with the RRBZ and the PPGZ. Problem is, I just don't see it. Let's list why:**

**Kaoru doesn't really like guys (the muscle guy doesn't count) at all.**

**Miyako had Takaaki. Sorry MiyakoxBoomer people, but this stuff is kinda canon (wow, I never thought I'd say that in this fic).**

**Then Momoko is...Momoko. Obviously, I don't think she'd go after someone who's kinda a slob (or a major one), but instead, maybe go after someone who actually cares about her.**

**Though I probably won't do RRBZxPPGZ as the main thing, I might have conflicts between the RBBZ and the other characters or something, like Boomer and Takaaki competing over Miyako or something. (BTW, this note is not even close to being done)**

**Another thing (unrelated to ships): I have a layout for the rest of the story. Basically, the rest of the story is kinda gonna be laid out in sort of...arcs. I know this isn't very shocking to most people, but what I'm gonna try to replicate is basically the episode format of the show. Now, there are two kinds of episodes, the ones that have two separate plots in the same episode, and those that have one episode's plot split into two parts.**

**I think what it might be is roughly one to two chapters per ten-minute stretch of TV show, which is one half of a twenty-minute episode. So, a full episode will be about four chapters. SO, if I wanted to make this story as long as the original show, I would have to have... *calculates* 208 CHAPTERS!**

**Yeah, the story will NOT be that long. Probably more like... Actually, I have no idea. I know what I want for certain arcs, like Sadato bonding with all of the girls, but I might throw in random episodes. Who knows, I might have the return of...THE EVIL VEGETABLES WITH DRESSING!**

**...Or not. Depends. *shrugs* Now, am I done with this A.N... Hmm... I think I am... Yep, I'm probably good. Wow... That was long.**

***EDIT* I kinda forgot this, but I suddenly remembered so... REVIEW RESPONSES:**

**cool as chik - I feel your pain... Back before my computer half died, my dad would steal the computer JUST FOR FACEBOOK VILLE THINGS! *sigh* Anyways, he's not a cyborg, but basically his internal organs and such are made out of metal. I didn't describe it very well, and I'm tempted to take it out, but I'll leave it in for now.**

**dragonroses - Well, I usually type a little bit of the story at a time, though only at school, for some reason. Never at home... I'm weird like that. *shrugs*  
><strong>

**Anyways, as usual, remember to review, subscribe/favorite, and spread the word. Thanks! ^^  
><strong>


	6. While on Patrol

Heart of Metal

* * *

><p>Chapter 6: While on Patrol<p>

* * *

><p>The rest of the school week passed by without much happening. For whatever reason, the monsters of Tokyo decided to remain quiet. Of course, the girls weren't complaining, and neither was anyone else.<em><br>_

Eventually, the school day on Friday came to a close, and all the students practically ran out of the school, looking forward to the first weekend of the year, especially since most homework that had been assigned was review, and could be easily completed either first thing, or last minute._  
><em>

As Sadato was making his way towards his house, he was captivated by the same thought that he had had in his head all week._  
><em>

Momoko._  
><em>

With his thought that he might possibly maybe have a chance of having feelings for her, he had been nervous around her all week, and though he noticed that she had acted at least somewhat similar, he didn't really get anything out of it._  
><em>

Now, he only thought of her more, trying to deduce whether or not her really had feelings for her. It went down in a sort of internal debate in his mind, between two forces; one that said he did have feelings for her, and one that said he didn't._  
><em>

The current session of the debate began with the voice that was against feelings towards Momoko._  
><em>

_I get that she's nice and all, that I'll admit, but I don't think she quite thinks about us that way.  
><em>

_I know what you're getting at, but even if she doesn't, we still have to try.  
><em>

_And get our heart broken? You wanna go through that?  
><em>

_Well, no but...  
><em>

_Exactly! She's a nice girl, but she doesn't like us like that.  
><em>

_Well, I still think we should try.  
><em>

_If you try, and she rejects you, there's a very good chance that it'll ruin our friendship forever. And neither of us wants that; I know that much.  
><em>

Sadato sighed as the internal debate came to a close, and the anti-relationship side gained some ground._  
><em>

_Man, _his now unified mind thought, _I have an odd way of working out problems.  
><em>

Turning onto his street, he soon reached his house and entered it, carefully wiping his feet before taking off his shoes._  
><em>

_"_I'm home!" he shouted into the house, though not at the top of his lungs; he knew if his parents were home they'd be able to hear him._  
><em>

He wasn't terribly surprised when he heard no answer. As much as they hated it, supporting a child was difficult, and so both of his foster parents often worked overtime to support him. While he appreciated the effort they put into his life, and he made sure they knew just how much, he wished they wouldn't always come home so late._  
><em>

_Such is life, _he thought to himself._  
><em>

Setting his hoodie on the coat rack in the main hall, Sadato ascended the stairs and entered his room, setting his backpack on the floor and jumping onto the bed, landing on his back with his arms crossed behind his head._  
><em>

He would often lie on his bed like this for a period of around ten minutes or so, just to unwind somewhat from the day he had experienced, though it wasn't exactly a stressful day, the ritual just seemed to relax him every time he did it._  
><em>

Though he normally didn't think about much during his ten minute rest, today was different. Obviously, he was once again thinking about Momoko, but this time, he decided not to go into an internal debate about it._  
><em>

Though, the side of him against a relationship began acting up again, and so Sadato closed his eyes and focused._  
><em>

_What do you want? _the side of Sadato that was for a relationship asked._  
><em>

_Oh, not much. Just thinking of that quote: 'There are so many fish in the sea.'  
><em>

_And? Just because there are lots of choices doesn't mean that Momoko's not the one.  
><em>

_Whatever. Just saying.  
><em>

Sadato sighed at the exchange, cursing his inner half for being so darn logical._  
><em>

Deciding to take his mind off of it, Sadato picked himself up, opened his backpack, pulled out a couple textbooks, and began to complete the actually somewhat larger than expected amount of homework he had had assigned to him.

* * *

><p>"And, done!"<p>

Momoko breathed a sigh of relief as she finished her homework, essentially freeing up the rest of her weekend. She had had more than she expected, but it had still been fairly easy.

"Now," she wondered aloud, "what am I gonna do for the rest of the day?"

Of course, the answer to her own question was obvious, and not five minutes later, Momoko began the trek across town to the National Science Lab.

Round about fifteen minutes later, she walked into the lab, Miyako and Kaoru already there, Kaoru watching a soccer game and Miyako reading a fashion magazine.

Taking her own seat, she pulled out some of the snacks she had brought with her, all of which were leftovers from earlier in the week when she had gone to Kintoukido with Sadato.

As she quietly sat and ate, enjoying the taste of her handmade treats, she didn't notice Kaoru turning off the monitor, or Miyako putting down her magazine.

That is, she didn't notice until Kaoru was right next to her, and asked suddenly, "So, how was your date?"

The sudden speech in her ear made Momoko practically jump out of her seat, while Kaoru simply grinned, awaiting an answer.

Looking back at Miyako on the other side of the couch, she found that she too was grinning, awaiting the answer as Kaoru was.

"W-well," Momoko began, then realized the question that had been asked. "Wait! It wasn't a date!"

"Says your mouth," Kaoru countered, "but your face tells a different story."

This only helped to increase the blush coming onto Momoko's face, spreading it from just her cheeks to almost all of her face.

"I-it wasn't like that!" Momoko defended. Kaoru and Miyako just laughed at their friends' embarrassment.

After her laughs died down, Miyako asked, being at least somewhat serious, "Now that that's done, how did it really go, Momoko?"

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, and to get rid of the blush on her face, Momoko replied as calmly as she could.

"Well, we really just ate at Kintoukido, then he carried the leftover snacks back to my house, and that was about it."

"He carried your stuff for you?" Kaoru asked, just the slightest bit doubtful.

Momoko nodded. "Yeah. He saw that I was having trouble, they were really heavy, and he carried them for me."

"Wow," Miyako remarked, "that must have been really nice of him."

"Yeah," Momoko agreed, trailing off her word, thinking back to that day.

_He really was awfully nice that day,_ she thought. _Nicer than most guys I know..._

Just then, the door to one of the other rooms opened up, and the professor came in.

"How's it going girls?" he asked casually.

"We're asking Momoko about her date," Kaoru replied just as casually.

"Date?" the professor asked, surprisingly calm, considering his reactions to hearing about Momoko being in love in the past.

"It wasn't a date!" Momoko defended again. The professor merely laughed.

"I can see that you're denying it, so I won't question it," he said. Momoko's only response was to sigh, almost defeatedly.

"Anyways, I came because I have an idea that I want to propose to you. And that's...patrols."

"Patrols?" Miyako queried. The professor nodded.

"Yes. You see, more and more, the monsters are planning things at night and then carrying them out during the day. I feel that if we can set up a nightly patrol routine, then we'll be able to catch the monsters and analyze their plans before they come to fruition."

The three girls stayed silent for a moment, digesting the idea. Then, looking at one another, they all nodded, then looked up at the professor.

"Sounds good!" Momoko confirmed, smiling determinedly.

"All right then," the professor said, "Momoko, you have the first patrol tonight then. From nine to ten-thirty, you'll fly around the city, and investigate anything suspicious going on with the monsters. And, as a bonus, if any non-monster criminals think they can pull off a robbery in the night, you'll be there to stop them."

"Alright!" Momoko let out, already excited, and a little glad the subject had shifted away from her night out with Sadato.

Just then, very suddenly, the mayor came on the monitor in the lab.

"Professor, it looks like Mojo is on a rampage again."

As if to confirm the mayor's accusation, a large crash outside, followed by a pillar of smoke appearing from the middle of the city indicated that Mojo was indeed rampaging, most likely for some childish reason.

"Powerpuff Girls Z! Move out!"

* * *

><p>Later that night, after the rather quick defeat of Mojo, and after the three girls had each gone to their respective homes and eaten dinner, Momoko sat in bed, awaiting her first patrol.<p>

After the girls had taken care of Mojo earlier, they and the professor had decided on a nightly arrangement. One girl would patrol the city from eleven to midnight. Because of this one-hour lapse in sleep, since the girls wanted to stay well-rested for school the next day, they all went to bed about an hour earlier than normal, with the exception of Kaoru, seeing as she already went to bed at eleven anyways.

The first night, Saturday night to be exact, was to be patrolled by Blossom, the group agreed. Momoko was excited; though she had been Blossom for a little under a year now, she had never done something like patrols. It was something that some of her favorite manga and anime heroes did, and she was eager to follow after them.

Luckily, her parents and Kuriko interpreted her optimistic attitude that night as Momoko just being herself, considering that she was usually like that. As usual, they did not suspect that the thirteen-year-old was actually excited about what others would consider a boring and mundane task.

Since it was a Saturday night, Momoko was allowed to stay up a bit later than normal, but she still chose to rest from ten until eleven to make sure she was well-rested for her patrol. She didn't want to fall asleep flying, after all. Though, a part of her wanted to know if she'd stay aloft or not.

Sure enough, her compact flashed at exactly eleven, signaling that it was time for her to get up.

Flipping open her compact, Momoko saw the face of the professor.

"We'll be doing our own sort of patrolling from here in the lab. So, don't feel pressured to do a super thorough examination."

"Right," Momoko confirmed, before transforming.

"Hyper Blossom!"

Before departing, Blossom made sure to arrange some things under her bed sheets so that if her parents decided to check up on her, they would at least see a lump in the bed roughly her shape and size.

Opening her window, Blossom then flew out, her signature flash of red light following after her.

* * *

><p>Sadato sighed as he closed his laptop.<p>

"Man, nobody uploaded anything today. Weak."

Plain and simple, Sadato was bored. Not a single one of his online subscriptions had uploaded anything at all. No video game walkthroughs, no music videos, no parody series', nothing.

Sadato sighed again, falling back on his bed, putting his hands behind his head and staring at the ceiling.

His mind was just too restless tonight to go to sleep, he knew that much. His body also really wasn't feeling sleep either, though that may have been because he had drank a few cans of soda about an hour beforehand. He was lucky; he never got sugar rushes or crashes, but he did feel that little boost that the caffeine gave him.

Suddenly, a familiar ache made itself known in Sadato's right temple, and he reached his hand up to slowly rub it.

"Now, really?" he asked himself, as if it would somehow provide an answer.

The only response he got was the pain in his temple intensifying, and an involuntary groan from himself as it did so.

"Alright, alright!" he conceded, apparently to himself. "I'll transform. Don't expect a rampage, though."

"Metal Morph!"

True to his own word, Metal really didn't feel like doing anything evil, like robbery or just plain rampaging throughout the city.

Truth be told, his main focus was on his romantic status. His mind and heart were currently in debate over Momoko, but that didn't mean that he didn't consider anyone else at all.

Metal looked around his room as he pondered, and his eyes eventually landed on one of his personal treasures: his guitar.

He had forgotten to tell Momoko, he realized then, that he played guitar. Truth be told, when he was Sadato, he usually enjoyed laid-back, not very hardcore rock, usually in country songs. Though, he would occasionally rock out to some sort of speed metal or some other extremely loud and rocking music. These songs were usually Japanese in origin, but he did listen to a fair amount of American artists. Though, while he could understand English, he definitely couldn't speak it.

Now that he was Metal Morph, however, the black light was once again influencing his ideals, and so his mind threw away those crappy relaxed songs and filled with the sounds of hardcore metal bands. Though the romantic debate was still strong in his mind.

Metal had an idea then, remembering a certain song, not of Japanese origins, but still really good, and it even related to his current situation. He decided that an experiment was in order.

Re-arranging some things under his covers so his parents wouldn't suspect anything if they came to check on him, he flew out the window to carry out his plan.

* * *

><p>Blossom was surprised at how boring patrolling turned out to be. The professor and her friends had warned her that she should expect this, but now that she was experiencing it herself, she understood exactly why.<p>

It wouldn't be all so bad if something had actually happened during her patrol, but unfortunately, fate did not love her so much as to give her that pleasantry.

She sighed, stopping her forward flight and putting herself upright before opening her compact, checking the time.

A sigh of relief was heard when it read eleven fifty.

_Just ten more minutes,_ she told herself. _Ten more minutes..._

Checking up on a few of the last places, which took around five more minutes, Blossom became extremely bored and impatient, though five minutes wasn't long at all, it seemed that way because she had nothing else to do.

Suddenly though, she heard what sounded like someone calling out. Not calling out for help, or anything else, just a soft, "Ah," that was drawn out and seemed to fade into the distance.

Following the sound, which repeated itself after the first time, Momoko also heard what sounded like a soft guitar riff under the ahs. Landing on a building near where the sound was coming from, she peeked from behind a large ventilation shaft, finding the source of the sound.

* * *

><p>Once Metal had reached the point in the city he wanted, he set his plan into motion.<p>

The first thing he did was morph his arm so that it extended out, forming the neck of an electric guitar. Afterwards, the body of the guitar simply popped out of his arm, and he caught the now finished, black guitar.

He then sent out two square metallic platforms, which he then attached to his body by forming two strong metal beams form the backs of his legs, which held the platforms aloft. Then, keeping the guitar attached to himself by molding it back into his body slightly, his hands both grew in size dramatically and changed to large, silver rectangular prisms, roughly half as big as Metal himself.

Then, on one of the faces on both prisms, a portion of the face began to cave in, forming an almost bowl-like area.

Then, as dials and knobs suddenly popped up above the area, it became apparent that the two large prisms were amplifiers, which once completed, Metal set down on the two platforms.

Then, a cord suddenly appeared out Metal's back, and seemingly of its own accord, pun possibly intended, split in two and connected itself into each of the speakers.

Metal then played a few notes on the guitar, just to warm himself up a bit.

Then, he began to play.

A small riff under a chorus of, "Ahs," came out of the speakers. Though Metal was alone in playing his song, he had plugged himself into the speakers, almost like an MP3 player, to provide the rest of the instruments.

After a few measures of the rift and the ahs, Metal then put his own voice forward.

And the entire time, Blossom hid, and watched with wide eyes.

(**Note: The song is Gotta be Somebody by Nickelback. I don't own it. Go and listen to it while you read, it should add to the wow factor. I guess in terms of the show, the lyrics below are the subtitles, just note that there is no actual Japanese version of this song.**)

* * *

><p><em>This time... I wonder what it feels like.<em>

_To find the one in this life..._

_The one we all dream of, but dreams just aren't enough so I'll be waiting for the real thing..._

At this, a drum beat added itself to the mix, and Metal's guitar playing became more pronounced.

_I'll know it by the feeling... The moment when we're meeting..._

_Will play out like a scene, straight off the silver screen, so I'll be holding my breath!_

_Right up 'till the end, until that moment when, I find the one that I'll spend forever with..._

Then, the chorus came, and Metal's voice sang out much louder and with much more emotion, and the amps, which were also plugged into his guitar, cranked out so many decibels that the air literally shook with how much sound was travelling through it.

'_Cause nobody wants to be the last one there!_

_And everyone wants to feel like someone cares!_

_Someone to love with my life in their hands, there's gotta be somebody for me like that!_

'_Cause nobody wants to go it on their own!_

_And everyone wants to know they're not alone!_

_There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere!_

_There's gotta be somebody for me out there!_

At the end of the chorus, Metal went back to his riff, and his voice became more laid-back.

_Tonight... Out in the street, out in the moonlight..._

_And dammit this feels too right..._

_It's just like déjà vu, me standing here with you, so I'll be holding my breath!_

_Could this be the end? Is it that moment when, I find the that I'll spend forever with..._

Once again, the chorus kicked in, and the volume was raised for both Metal's guitar and voice.

'_Cause nobody wants to be the last one there!_

_And everyone wants to feel like someone cares!_

_Someone to love with my life in their hands, there's gotta be somebody for me like that!_

'_Cause nobody wants to go it on their own!_

_And everyone wants to know they're not alone!_

_There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere!_

_There's gotta be somebody for me out there!_

Instead of transferring back to his laid-back voice, the tune then changed so that the, 'Ahs' from before came back, and with every one, Metal played a chord on his guitar and held it, repeating it four times before getting back into the vocals with another guitar riff, this one much louder than the previous two, with a mysterious background voice accompanying him after every line.

_Oooo you can't give up.. (when you're looking for)_

_A diamond in the rough... (cause you'll never know)_

_When it shows up... (make sure you're holding on)_

'_Cause it could be the one, the one you're waiting on..._

Then, Metal re-started the chorus again, this time with almost no musical accompaniment, with the exception of a soft synthesizer making some quiet noises. His voice also became much less scream-like, but instead sounded like he was straining himself.

'_Cause nobody wants to be the last one there..._

_And everyone wants to feel like someone cares..._

_Someone to love with my life in their hands, there's gotta be somebody for me!_

_OOOHHH!_

At this, the chorus resumed in full, Metal shouting out every word with every drop of emotion he had.

For every word, he truly meant.

_Nobody wants to go it on their own!_

_And everyone wants to know they're not alone!_

_There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere!_

_There's gotta be somebody for me out there!_

_Nobody wants to be the last one there!_

_And everyone wants to feel like someone cares!_

_There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere!_

_There's gotta be somebody for me out there!_

At this, Metal played one last chord and let it fade out, the only music accompanying the fading note being the synthesizer playing soft, airy piano-like notes.  
>And so Metal finished his song, and though it was really only a few minutes long, it seemed like much longer to his single audience, of which he had no idea about.<p>

* * *

><p>Throughout Metal's entire performance, the only thing Blossom did was stare in astonishment with her mouth wide open.<p>

Even as Metal packed up his things, meaning he absorbed his amps and such back into his body, she couldn't bring herself to think much else.

Luckily for her, Metal had sang the song in Japanese, so she could understand the whole thing, but that was beside the point.

The point was that Metal Morph, a villain that she had admittedly only met once, but still seemed like someone who would rather smash love than need it, sang a song filled with so much emotion and longing that is was incomprehensible.

Just then, her compact rang and flashed, telling her that her patrol was over, and she could go back to sleep.

Snapping out of her music-induced trance, Blossom let out a yawn, and though the sight she had just seen was fairly astounding, her mind and body were overpowering it at the time, saying that is was time for sleep.

So Blossom complied, flying back to her house and transforming in her room, changing into her pajamas before crawling under her sheets.

But before Momoko feel asleep, she reflected on Metal, and everything she knew about him.

He had the power to morph his hands, and possibly the rest of his body, into anything his mind could come up with that was made of metal. He could fly, most likely had super strength, and could play a guitar and sing fairly well.

So many questions, ideas and facts reverberated in her head, it almost made her head hurt. But one question in particular stood out the most, above all else.

_Who is he?_

* * *

><p><strong>I'm trying to imagine a Japanese version of Gotta be Somebody, and...it's not working.<strong>

**Anyways, just a little bit of character development here. Just goes to show you that even though he's corrupted when transformed into Metal, Sadato does have plenty of control. So, it's not really his fault. ...Sort of. ^^'**

**Review Responses:  
><strong>

**cool as chik - Thanks, man. ^^ Oh, and in case you didn't read the updated RR from last chapter, Sadato isn't a robot when transformed. The metal just makes up his internal organs and stuffs. I haven't quite thought it through yet, I'll provide an explanation later.**

**dragonroses - Thank you, good sir/madam. ^^**

**darkangelandbrightdevil - I hope the update pleases you. ^^**

**Well, I really don't have much to say, other then this does kinda maybe conclude the first arc. I still think that I need to introduce Metal to the other villains, but that'll come later.**

**Alright, that's all from me. Remember to review, subscribe/favorite, and spread the word. Thanks! ^^**

**Oh, and let's all pray that the Music Industry doesn't come after me for using Nickelback's song in this chapter. ^^'  
><strong>


	7. Mind & Body

Heart of Metal

* * *

><p>Chapter 7: Mind &amp; Body<p>

* * *

><p>As the weekend came to an end, no pun intended, most students dreaded the approach of a new school week. However, Momoko was looking forward to it, possibly because she would be seeing Sadato, or possibly because of some other reason.<p>

During the school day on Monday, Momoko heard some rumors about a new sushi place opening up, actually on her own route home. Excited, she explicitly looked that day, and sure enough, the store was on one of the streets, with a sign saying that it would open up the next day.

On said day, as school ended, Momoko decided to invite Sadato and her friends, thinking that they hadn't really met him enough yet. Though the other two girls happily accepted, eager to get to know Sadato better, Sadato declined, saying that his mind was somewhere else.

"Where exactly?" Momoko asked, crossing her arms.

"Well," Sadato began, "it's kinda complicated."

"Well, talk about it over a bowl of Makizushi!" she said, and before Sadato could say anything more, he found himself being dragged off in the direction of the store, Miyako and Kaoru following behind, the former smiling while the latter was holding in her laughter.

* * *

><p>At said sushi store, while the girls talked about whatever they did, with Kaoru interjecting often that their conversation was getting too girly for her, Sadato merely stared at his food, occasionally taking small bites.<p>

His mind was mainly back on his defeat at the hands of the PPGZ. While he wasn't raging angry about it anymore, he still felt frustrated by the ordeal. What could he really do?

Just then, he heard Momoko let out an, "Oi!" which startled him out of his trance.

"What?" he asked, trying to sound as if nothing was bothering him.

"Is something bothering you?" Momoko asked, obviously meaning that his attempt at sounding normal had failed.

"I-it's nothing, really," Sadato replied, trying to sound pleasant again, but Momoko just crossed her arms, while the other girls looked on, Miyako with worry and Kaoru with curiosity. Sadato sighed, knowing that he couldn't tell them the full truth, but he could at least tell them a story somewhat similar.

"Well, I sorta got into a fight on Sunday," he began, before he was interrupted by the three girls gasping in unison.

"Oh my god! Are you alright!" Momoko asked, showing a little too much concern for someone who just thought of Sadato as a friend.

"Yeah," Sadato reassured, "I escaped without any injuries. But, that's not the point. The point was, I didn't win. And, I feel like I should have."

The three girls all stared, sympathetic for their friend. Though they weren't in his situation often, they did understand that a defeat in battle could be very disheartening. After being PPGZ for almost a year, they had tasted defeat more than once.

Momoko, being the most concerned for her friend, thought that maybe by asking questions she could help her friend solve his problem.

"Well," she asked, a little hesitant, "what was the main cause for your loss?"

"Hm..." Sadato thought, thinking back to the fight that day.

What had it been? His strategy? Maybe, but he really didn't think during fights like that. Though, he made a note to look out for any water towers next time. His strength? Truth be told, he had tested out his strength on Monday, and it had been enough to lift a fully loaded eighteen wheeler and two SUVs with one hand. He assumed he was good in that department.

Then, what was it? His mind raced through all the different options before a sudden flashback from the fight hit him like a train.

* * *

><p>"<em>Now you've really got me pissed!" Buttercup shouted at Metal, who reeled back a bit, somewhat nervous of her apparent anger.<em>

"_Swing Sonic!" she screamed, swinging her hammer in such a way that a shock wave of green energy shot out of the face, headed right towards Metal at super speed._

* * *

><p>His ferocity! Thinking back, he really had just been having fun the whole time. He wasn't really aiming to kill the PPGZ or anything. In reality, he was just making his appearance as a new villain.<p>

His eyes widened in realization, which the girls all saw.

"Did you figure something out?" Kaoru asked.

"Yeah," Sadato replied, dumbstruck at how simple the truth was, "I have!"

With that, he got up, and ran out of the store with almost lightning speed. But then, he suddenly came back, pulled several yen out of his wallet, and set it on the table in order to pay for his own food. Then, he resumed his trek out of the shop.

The girls sat and watched with surprised eyes as their friend ran out of the shop. For what reason, they weren't sure.

Little did they know, their next fight with Metal...

Wouldn't be so forgiving as the last.

* * *

><p>Running home, Sadato knew that while his ferocity was the main cause of his loss, there was also something else holding him back.<p>

He had thought earlier that his strategy was not one of the reasons he had lost, but now, he was thinking a bit differently.

He didn't exactly think that his strategy needed improving. To be exact, his thought now was that he needed to train in a style of fighting, in other words, work on his technique.

Remembering the PPGZ's hissatsu attacks, he made a mental note to come up with some of those later as well.

A million other thoughts raced through his head as he made his way home and went upstairs into his room, hanging a sign on his door that said, "Please Do Not Enter".

"Metal Morph!"

Flying out his window, Metal made a beeline for the woods outside the city, several plans already forming in his mind.

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, Metal arrived at his destination, though it was really just a spot in the woods several miles from the city.<p>

"Well," Metal said aloud, "time to get started."

He had devised a training schedule, one that would train the three things he needed to work on: ferocity, fighting technique, and hissatsu attacks.

On the day he was on now, it was mainly ferocity, maybe with a side of fighting technique.

Concentrating, Metal stuck out his hands, and liquid metal flowed off of them, forming a thick, cylinder shape. Then, several pegs came out of various spots on the cylinder, and it took its shape as a Mu ren zhuang, or, for those not educated in the field of martial arts, a wooden training post commonly used by martial artists for training.

While they were usually made of wood, that wouldn't have worked for Metal, considering that he would have easily broken it with his super strength.

Attaching the training post to the ground with several chains that just seemed to meld into the post itself, Metal then took off his gloves and his jacket, leaving his chest to only be covered by his black tank-top.

Cracking his neck on one side, then the next, then cracking his knuckles, Metal set to work on punching the training post in various ways.

Of course, it takes years of practice for anyone to really develop any real type of fighting technique. But as far as Metal was concerned, he didn't have that kind of time, and so he fought the metal post with as much strength as he could.

He then remembered that he needed to be more ferocious with his attacks, though just keeping up a string of hits the correct way took almost all of his concentration. There was also that small part of him, no matter how hard the black light within him tried to erase, that was apprehensive about hurting people, especially girls.

Shaking the feeling off, Metal focused on anything in the world that made him angry. Anything that made his blood boil. Nothing really came to mind for a while, though several things were considered, until he remembered why he was here in the first place.

His previous defeat.

Closing his eyes, Metal focused on the memory of the fight. How he, now having an idea of how he should fight, was abhorred at how playful he had seemed. His attacks were half-hearted, and he had walked right into one of the PPGZ's traps.

How could he have been so stupid! How was he surprised that he had lost! He had done a horrible job, and now his first impressions on the city were probably that of a clown!

Infused with so much rage he felt like he should melt into slag any minute, Metal set upon the post with new ferocity, this time, landing blows so fast that they were practically invisible to the naked eye.

With this newfound rage, that small part of him that was nervous about hurting the PPGZ vanished, consumed by the black light, which was empowered by Metal's anger.

Blow after blow, Metal's strikes were so quick and powerful that they dented the metal training post he had made, which was impressive, considering that he had made it out of his own personal body metal, which he previously thought was nigh indestructible.

Eventually, though, his pace of blows slowed, and his assault began to let up, as Metal's breathing became heavier with every few blows.

Then, one more thought about his atrocious fight sent him back into a frenzy, and suddenly, something _clicked_ inside him.

He then turned his right arm into a sword, and began to take swings at the post, creating hugs arrays of sparks every time he struck it.

Somewhere in the combo, his arm, almost instinctively, turned itself into an axe, and he continued his swinging, this time a portion slower, but also much more powerful.

Throughout his frenzied combo, his arm kept turning into various bladed weapons, though he barely seemed to notice.

Finally, with one last thought about his fight, Metal took a hop back and raised his right hand to the sky, and it subsequently turned itself into a large sphere, almost the size of Metal himself. Then, huge spikes grew out of the sphere at regular intervals, taking the shape of an enormous mace.

Jumping into the air, Metal swung his mace-arm in a circle several times, and sphere fell off of his wrist, connected by a chain.

Swinging the mace to gain momentum, and to extend the chain that he was forming out of his wrist, Metal eventually felt that he had gained enough speed, and let out a great shout as he swing the mace's sphere directly at the training post.

"_Metallic Annihilation!"_

Somewhere along the way to its target, the wrecking ball gained a sort of black glow, and seemed to buzz with energy.

Then, the ball impacted its target, the training post, and shattered the ground with its impact. The energy contained within the then ball released, and an enormous explosion shook the area, the energy releasing a bright light that shot into the air.

When the light and the dust had settled, the only thing left was a huge crater where the ball had struck.

Metal had landed at this point, breathing heavily, for the attack had taken a lot out of him. Though, after a few breaths, he smiled and let out an almost echoing, evil laughter.

His training had truly begun.

* * *

><p><strong>Man, this one feels really short. Not sure why, considering it is just around 2000 words. *shrugs* Anyways, yeah.<strong>

**BTW, you people should review more. I don't care if you are a user or not, I LIVE off of the reviews my stories get. Or, maybe the fic lives off of it. You get the point.**

**Review Responses:**

**cool as chik - Thanks. ^^ On a completely unrelated note, the first arc is not yet done. There should be around...five more chapters in it? Maybe?**

**Anyways, as always, **remember to REVIEW (Please!), subscribe/favorite, and spread the word. Thanks! ^^****


	8. Results

Heart of Metal

* * *

><p>Chapter 8: Results<p>

* * *

><p>The rest of the week passed by without much happening in the lives of the girls, with the exception that Momoko rated the new sushi place 4 stars in her book, which meant that they had a new usual customer coming in almost every day.<p>

However, there was one other thing that bothered Momoko throughout the rest of the week.

Sadato had been happy throughout the week, which wasn't what bothered her. It was that after every school day, she would try to invite him to go somewhere, but he would always decline, saying that he had somewhere to go instead.

Of course, she tried to come up with various explanations in her head, but after one part of her came up with the idea that he was going on dates with someone after school, she decided to leave it be.

Unbeknownst to her, the real reason Sadato was leaving so quickly was because he was eager to fly into the woods and train his abilities as Metal Morph.

In the course of his training, both physical and mental, he had erased all hesitation to hurt the PPGZ, and had improved his fighting style by an incredible amount.

Friday was no exception to this, with the exception that it really wouldn't be a training session. More precisely, it would be an evaluation.

Flying back to his usual spot, Metal looked around at the many craters he had made with his various weapons. At first, he had thought that the first one he had made with _Metallic Annihilation_ was large, but as he developed his abilities further and further, he was able to better focus his energy into his weapons, making his attacks that much more devastating.

He had also decided to take a bit of a leaf out of Blossom's book, being that he wouldn't rely on just a few hissatsu attacks. After all, using the same group of moves over and over again would get boring. So, he decided to come up with whatever attacks would be useful on the spot.

Which wouldn't be very hard, considering that his reaction time had also significantly improved. He had achieved this feat by customizing his workout post, putting some machinery inside of it that would occasionally release a random fist from a random position, so that when he was training with it, he would occasionally have to dodge a blow, as he would against a real opponent.

His physical strength had also increased from all of the training that he had undergone. At the beginning of the week, he decided to use a scale of how many twenty-foot trees he could lift at once. At the beginning of the week, he could lift around twenty at the same time (it astounded him how heavy wood could really be). By the end of the week, that number had nearly tripled to fifty-five.

Testing out a few punches, slices, and kicks on his training post, Metal found that he could easily strike all of the spots very quickly while dodging the blows that came out of the post.

Then, testing out his strength for the last time, he found that he was able to lift sixty trees, even.

Lastly, he checked his morph speed. This was one other thing he had needed to work on, he had decided early on. While he could morph his body into almost anything he could think of, within reason, the process wasn't as quick as he would have liked it to be. It sometimes took several seconds to make just a simple gun.

His training had fixed that. Now, with a simple flick of his wrist, he could instantly make a sword or any other similar weapon. He found that the wrist flick actually helped a lot with the morphing of whatever metal his body was now made of.

Metal looked the field over, and nodded to himself, a smile appearing on his face.

Today was the day he took his vengeance.

* * *

><p>As they usually did, the girls were, at the time, hanging out in the lab, Kaoru watching an American football match, luckily with Japanese subtitles, while Miyako was showing Momoko some outfits that she thought would look nice on her.<p>

The professor and Ken were off doing some experiment or another, and Peach was lying on the couch next to Momoko, who was casually scratching behind his ear as she looked at the magazine.

It seemed an ordinary, peaceful day in the lab.

Which was soon shattered by Peach waking up and then barking loudly.

"Peach, what is it?" Miyako asked.

"A monster da wan!" Peach replied, growling, seemingly at the air.

Hearing Peach's barking, and the word, 'monster,' the professor and Ken came into the room and began tapping buttons on the main computer in order to determine the location of the monster.

The girls watched on as the large monitor atop the computer flipped between the views of several different cameras located throughout the city. Eventually, one camera came up with the image they were looking for.

Sure enough, one of the cameras focused in on a black figure floating above the streets of the city in the lower district.

"I'll zoom in," Ken said, and tapped some commands into the console.

As the camera zoomed in, is was apparent they were staring at the back of a figure. Eventually, the camera focused enough to get a view of a large, grey, 'M' on the back of the figure's black coat.

"Metal Morph!" the girls said in unison. They all then watched in silence as Metal turned so that the camera was now looking at his side, and he morphed his left arm into a megaphone and began to speak into it.

"Powerpuff Z!" he shouted to the city below him. "I know you can hear me! Come on out and fight me! I'll be waiting!"

With that, he turned his arm back to normal and then simply floated there, evidently waiting for the PPGZ to come and accept his challenge.

The professor turned to the girls, who were all staring at Metal's image on the monitor.

"Will you accept it?" he asked them. Before they could respond, however, Metal suddenly shouted out something else.

"Oh yeah! Before I forget, if you don't show up, then the Mayor is gonna get an unexpected visitor!" He laughed at his threat, having every intention of keeping it. "Just a little incentive!"

Now the professor sighed; the girls had no choice but to fight now. He kept staring at Metal, for he knew the kid had something up his sleeve. After all, he had lost his previous fight with the girls, why challenge them again unless he was confident he was going to win?

Just as he was about to turn around to tell the girls his concern, there was a bright flash of red, blue, and green light, and the three girls all shouted out.

"Hyper Blossom!"

"Rolling Bubbles!"

"Powered Buttercup!"

"_Powerpuff Girls Z_!"

The professor watched as the girls formulated a plan in a small huddle. Apparently, they decided on something that they all agreed on, for a moment later, Buttercup and Bubbles flew off in Metal's direction.

However, before Blossom could leave, the professor put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Be careful, Blossom," he cautioned. "I have a feeling he's got something planned for you."

"Don't worry, professor," Blossom reassured, "we'll be okay!"

With that, she winked, relaying her confidence to the professor, and took off to face the foe that was waiting for her and her friends.

* * *

><p>Metal sat, legs crossed in midair, and waited as patiently as he could for his adversaries to arrive.<p>

Of course, as patient as he could be wasn't very patient at all. He found himself growing annoyed when only three or so minutes had passed from his message, and his enemies still hadn't shown up.

_Where are they!_ he asked himself irritatedly. _Did they get cold feet? I swear, if they wussed out on this one, their precious Mayor will-_

Before he could finish the thought, something in his head, a primal urge call it, told him to duck his head.

Making hinges appear on the back of his neck, Metal was able to bend his head backwards so that it was literally parallel with his back.

Sure enough, his urge was right, and a pink yo-yo shot through the space where his head had been less than a second ago.

Metal smirked at the reactions of his attackers, since he could see them now that his head was looking backwards. Getting up from his crouched position, but keeping his upside-down head facing the girls, he said nothing and just tried to take a mental picture of their faces as they saw his head bent at an insane angle.

"Well," he said, breaking their stunned faces, "I guess you didn't get cold feet after all."

With that, he turned around, revealing that in the spot where his neck had separated, instead of showing the inside of a human neck, below the layer of skin was just pure, solid metal. No blood, organs, or anything more.

The girls took on even more shocked expressions as Metal's head bent back into its proper place, his neck reattached itself, and the hinges disappeared from the back of his neck.

"No, we didn't," Blossom finally said, referencing Metal's comment a moment ago.

"That's good," Metal said, cracking his neck to one side, then the next. Somehow, the cracking sound of human joints could be heard. "I was going to be disappointed if I didn't get to test myself out after all of that training."

"Training?" Buttercup asked, wary of what preparations Metal had taken prior to the fight.

Metal simply chuckled. "You'll see." He then cracked his knuckles, one hand at a time, which again mysteriously made the cracking sound one would expect from a human.

The girls said nothing as they readied their weapons, deciding to let Metal have the first move.

That was their first mistake.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Metal recalled all of the ideas he had thought of in advance for techniques to use during the fight.

Then, he opened his eyes, and the fight began.

"Here I come!" he shouted out, and banged his fists together, turning both fists into pure metal, and charged at the girls with speed several times greater than the last time he had fought them.

So fast was his speed that when he took a swing at Blossom's face, she could do nothing to dodge, and so Metal's fist struck with unreal force.

Pain, almost like nothing she had ever felt before, raced though Blossom's entire head, and her body, when she went flying into a nearby building.

Before her friends could even react, Metal charged at Bubbles, both hands this time turned into swords.

Luckily, Bubbles had a bit more time to react, and so she dodged Metal's first large, downward swing.

But as Metal missed the blow, he grinned.

Suddenly, his foot morphed into a giant metal mallet, and spinning with the momentum of his swing, he brought his mallet foot crashing down into Bubbles, sending her flying to the ground with explosive force.

He then turned to Buttercup, only to find that she was taking a swing at him from above.

In a feat that almost astonished Metal himself, he raised one hand and caught Buttercup's swing, apparently without too much effort.

Buttercup stood, or floated, flabbergasted for a moment. Almost no villain had been able to match, let alone beat, her strength enough to catch a swing from her hammer.

Metal took advantage of her lapse in concentration, and sent a punch right into Buttercup's stomach, hoping that he hit the same spot he had kicked her in during their last fight.

He did. On top of the punch in general, which hurt unbelievably, the impact jostled her injuries from the previous hit, which still hadn't healed properly.

Clutching at her stomach, which was hurting more than she could ever imagined something could hurt, Buttercup was oblivious to the fact that Metal was making his fists into pure metal again, this time with small spikes on each of the knuckles.

Then, Buttercup looked up to see Metal smirking down at her, before he landed another punch, this time an uppercut to her jaw.

The blow wasn't meant to send her flying, though she did gain some altitude. In reality, the blow was really meant to loosen Buttercup's hold on herself, meaning that now, she was wide open.

Dazed from the blow to her jaw, Buttercup saw Metal fly up to her altitude, then smirk again as he _really_ began to give out punishment.

First, a right hook to her face. Then, a left uppercut, though this one was purely to inflict pain, not send her flying at all. Then, a right roundhouse kick with a steel-toed shoe, which _did _send her flying.

Flying after his target, which was traveling through the air at an incredible rate, Metal caught up with her, went ahead of her, then stopped in her path. When Buttercup reached him, he wound up his leg and kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying into the air.

At this point, Buttercup was sure several of her bones were broken, and that it was possible she may start spitting up blood any second.

As Buttercup ascended, face-up, she saw Metal fly ahead of her again, and this time put his arms together and form an enormous mallet, this one with small, dull spikes on the bottom, almost like a mallet used to tenderize meat.

As Buttercup reached him, still flying upward, Metal did an entire front flip early to build up momentum, and just when Buttercup reached him, he swung the mallet down at her, and impacted her stomach yet again.

At this impact, Buttercup's earlier prediction of spitting up blood came true, and an amount of the red liquid came out of her mouth in a cough.

Then, physics took over, and Buttercup went flying towards the ground at a rate faster than either of her friends had experienced.

As he watched Buttercup impact the ground, Metal smirked, then began to chuckle to himself.

"Too easy," he said to himself.

Just then, he heard a shout from behind him.

"_Bubble Champagne_!"

Metal turned to see a very determined looking Bubbles swinging her wand over and over again, sending a huge barrage of bubbles his way.

Metal grinned. Though Bubbles initially thought he was going to use his needle attack like last time, instead he morphed his arms into swords again and took a stance.

As the bubbles came closer to him, Metal closed his eyes, concentrating, but a moment later, they shot open, before Metal shouted out.

"_Sword Siege_!"

At the cry, his blades seemed to hum, and they gave off a faint, black glow.

Then, as bubbles were upon him, Metal began slicing through one after another, an incredible feat, considering there were almost fifty bubbles coming at him at any one time.

Metal's blades were literally streaks of black and silver as they cut through bubble after bubble. Of course, Bubbles herself was astounded that he was able to cut through all of them. Then, she realized the name of his attack.

A siege was an attack on something. She remembered reading about it in her studies of the medieval era, and how sieges were carried out on castles back then. A siege was literally a barrage of attacks, in this case, a barrage of swings.

She was snapped out of her realization by the ceasing of the sound of bubbles popping. Metal had finished and looked at Bubbles menacingly.

He then charged, and began to take swings at her, this time much faster and more controlled than the last.

Bubbles dodged all that she could, though some she couldn't, which she instead blocked with her bubble wand.

But she couldn't last forever, and the earlier impact from Metal had taken plenty out of her. Eventually, she started to slow down with her dodges and blocks, and Metal's attacks kept getting closer and closer.

Then, seeing her fatigue, Metal faked a swing in one direction, and when she dodged the opposite way, he took a swing in that direction.

Reacting on what she was sure was instinct, Bubbles pushed Metal away, but not before his blade cut across her right arm.

Clutching at the wound, Bubbles breathed deeply, tired to the point of exhaustion.

Metal, however, was still going strong, without a single scratch on him. He grinned as he readied himself for another barrage on Bubbles.

Suddenly, a familiar pink yo-yo came shooting out of seemingly nowhere and wrapped itself around Metal, restraining him.

"What the!?" Metal cried out, though he knew exactly who the attack had come from.

Blossom held the string as tight as she could, hoping to restrain Metal long enough for Bubbles to get away.

"Bubbles, get Buttercup and go!" she ordered.

"But, you-" Bubbles protested, but was cut off by Blossom.

"That's an order as your team leader!" she shouted. Though she hated to be rough with her friend like this, the situation called for it.

Bubbles didn't argue any further, and flew away in the direction of Buttercup's crater to recover her.

Metal managed to turn around and face Blossom, even in his restraint, which surprised Blossom. Though, today had been a day full of surprises.

"So," Metal said, "how do you like the new and improved me?" He smirked, while Blossom growled.

"I hate it!" she said back, hoping that it would intimidate Metal or something.

Metal just laughed. "Good!" he replied. "That's what I was hoping for!"

With that, Metal called out another attack name, though this time, it wasn't exactly an attack.

"_Metalmorphosis_!"

At this, Metal's body glowed a blackish-purple, and then, to Blossom's utter shock, he slowly began to shrink.

With a sudden lack of evil villain to hold onto, the yo-yo string simply unravelled and fell off of Metal.

As soon as the string was off, Metal's shrinking stopped, and he snapped back to his normal size.

Admittedly, his move had actually taken something out of him, but he didn't let that show easily.

"Ha!" he shouted to the stunned Blossom. "You should see your face!"

Shaking her head, Blossom retracted her yo-yo, preparing herself for a one-on-one fight.

And judging from what Metal had done to Buttercup, it wasn't going to be pretty.

"Let's go!" Metal shouted, charging at Blossom with fists outstretched.

This time, Blossom was prepared for his assault, so when Metal aimed another punch at her cranium, she was able to move her head out of the way.

Instead of swinging swords at her like he had done with Bubbles, Metal simply used his fists, unaltered, for once, to attempt to cause pain.

Though after several missed blows, Metal was fairly convinced that close up combat wasn't going to get him anywhere with Blossom.

Though, at the same time, that yo-yo of hers could be tricky to deal with at mid or long range.

Suddenly, Metal had a brainwave and smiled, though Blossom was too focused on dodging his various punches and kicks to notice.

Then, Metal suddenly flew back from Blossom, morphing his right arm into a sphere.

Then, the sphere started to flatten itself, though only slightly so that it was almost like a disk. A groove then appeared in the disk on the very edge that went all the way around it.

At first, Blossom was unsure of exactly what he was forming, then, as the disk shape dropped out off of Metal's wrist, still connected by a small chain, she suddenly realized just what it was.

Deciding to put a little aesthetic touch onto his own yo-yo, Metal added a large, black 'M' on both sides.

"It's not too original," he admitted, "but it'll do."

"You copied my yo-yo?" Blossom asked, hoping that maybe she was seeing things.

"Sort of," Metal said. "It's got a chain instead of a string, and it doesn't exactly spin. What it does do is this!"

He suddenly drew his arm back and swung, launching his yo-yo at Blossom with frightening speed.

Reacting quickly, Blossom barely dodged the initial strike before Metal moved his arm again, making the yo-yo come at her from behind, which she dodged by flying upwards.

Not knowing, or wanting to know, how Metal was manipulating the yo-yo, Blossom had no choice but to keep dodging his attacks. They were so fast that she just couldn't wind up her arm to get in a good shot, and Metal was too far away to do a close-range attack.

Suddenly, though, Metal retracted the yo-yo back into his wrist, though he didn't return his hand to normal.

Instead, he swung his arm again, but this time, the yo-yo came clean off, hurtling itself towards Blossom.

She dodged, notably with not much effort, but then realized the trap when she saw Metal closing in on her, taking the opening she created after her dodge.

Flipping downwards, she released a burst of energy from her shoes, blasting downwards, which Metal soon copied, going after her in pursuit.

Just before she hit the ground, Blossom made a sharp turn and flew back up at forty-five degrees. At first, she was sure only she could do it and Metal would crash into the ground, and that would leave an opening for her to attack.

When she turned around, however, she didn't see a column of smoke like she expected.

Instead, she saw stars as Metal's fist collided with her jaw in an explosive uppercut.

She was sent flying upwards, pain racing throughout her jaw and neck, but she regained her composure quickly and halted her ascent.

Metal soon joined her at her altitude, and instead of going the melee route, he morphed two things out of the top of his wrists, looking almost like a dispenser for something flat.

Blossom found out the next second that they were indeed dispensers as they fired, and small, metallic stars came flying out at machine gun like rates.

Thinking fast, Blossom rapidly flung her yo-yo at full speed, meeting every star that came her way with a super-powered yo-yo, destroying them.

Unfortunately, it took absolute focus from her to keep up the barrage of defensive attacks, while it took Metal nearly none, considering his star guns were all automated.

Just when Blossom thought she wouldn't be able to keep up with the star guns anymore, the barrage suddenly stopped, and Blossom retracted her yo-yo to see what Metal had planned next.

She was shocked to see that now, Metal was aiming what looked like his elbows at her. For a moment, she was confused, then, Metal's elbows suddenly popped open, and from inside his arms somewhere, shot out two grey, metallic rockets.

"Rocket launchers!? Are you serious!?" she shouted at Metal, all the while aiming and throwing her yo-yo at the incoming projectiles in order to destroy them, each one blowing up harmlessly in midair.

Metal simply laughed as he fired more and more rockets Blossom's way.

Though defending herself from the rockets was tough, she admitted it was easier than the throwing stars, and it gave her time to think on what she'd do in the situation.

_This is insane!_ was her first thought. _He just keeps going and going like a battery. I can't get him near any source of water; he knows that's his weakness now. I have no idea what his next move will be; he can morph himself into anything! Doesn't this guy have a limit?_

Suddenly, she saw a small, blue streak off in the distance, and for a split second, she could see Bubbles helping a weak and very beaten, but still very much alive Buttercup into the the air.

_Good, they made it_, Blossom thought to herself. _If I can keep Metal occupied, they can get away, then I can hide and transform back._

Suddenly, Metal's barrage of rockets stopped. Blossom stayed at the ready, preparing for whatever Metal might have in store for her.

Now, Metal had turned his hands into large, cylindrical round things with the middles cut out of them. The next second, they both fired and two large, pure metal spheres came flying out of them, revealing their identities as simple cannons.

Blossom knew that while throwing stars were small and could be blocked, and rockets were sensitive to impact and could be blown up, cannon balls were hard and there was no way in heck she'd be able to deflect them.

Luckily, they were also slow, which meant that dodging them would be a viable option.

At least, that's what she thought they would be. Unfortunately, Metal's cannon balls were much faster than what she expected, and so while she could still dodge them, it was a much harder feat than she expected.

It also didn't help when Metal saw her realization of how difficult dodging would be, and upped the ante by morphing two more cannons out of his shoulders, and upping the firing rate of all of his cannons considerably.

Now with four cannons to dodge, and at a faster rate, Blossom was surprised in her own stamina. Though she was exhausted, she kept dodging, knowing that one wrong move could cost her dearly.

Eventually the barrage did stop, but just when Blossom lowered her guard to take a breather, Metal flew up from nowhere and appeared right in her face.

"Gotcha," he said simply, before aiming one of his cannon arms directly at her midsection and firing at point-blank range.

This cannon ball in particular was no different from the previous, with the exception that it hit its mark about a tenth of a second after it left the barrel.

Of course, such an impact firstly brought forth a cough full of blood from Blossom's throat, and secondly, shot her backwards at an immense rate.

Unfortunately for more than just her, Blossom's trajectory was headed right for where Bubbles was currently helping Buttercup slowly fly away.

Though Bubbles did hear Blossom's screams as she was flying towards them, by the time she turned around to face them, Blossom was literally only a few feet in front of her, and her momentum hadn't stopped.

Slamming into her two friends, a small part of Blossom's mind registered that the cannon ball had fallen away from her, but the rest was clouded in a thick fog of pain.

Flying with the momentum of Blossom's impact, the three girls were all sent tumbling onto a nearby building's roof.

Landing in a tangled pile of limbs, the girls at first waited a few moments for the pain that was racing through each of their bodies to calm down.

Picking themselves, and each other, up, they all turned their heads at a certain black-haired villain laughing as he descended in the air near them.

"Is this really all you've got?" Metal asked them, spreading his arms outwards, mirroring what he had just said with his body language. "I expected more from you, Powerpuffs!"

The girls in question simply scowled at Metal, even Bubbles. Metal simply laughed again.

"In any case," he said, his right hand morphing into a chain, not for the first time, "it's time to finish this!"

Deciding to use a large impact to flatten them, Metal knew that his chain now had a large, solid metal ball on the end to crush the PPGZ with, though he didn't see it.

Swinging his arm back, just once, he then brought it up and them down, aiming so that the ball would land right on the girls.

Focusing his energy into the wrecking ball, Metal relished the moment as he called out the attack name that would finish the fight.

"_Universal Executioner_!"

As the chain came downwards towards the girls and Metal lowered his head because of his swing, both Metal and the girls themselves expected a very big boom to ensue.

But as Metal waited for three whole seconds, no such boom ensued.

Looking up, he saw a sight that baffled him completely.

Instead of a complete wrecking ball at the end of his chain, there instead was only a portion of one. The ball had been so incomplete that it hadn't even touched the building where the girls were now standing on.

"W-what!" Metal cried out, flicking his arms back so the incomplete ball landed in his other hand.

Examining it closely, Metal saw that while the ball was incomplete, he knew it was still forming, as he could see very tiny cubes pop out of the surface of the incomplete weapon, making it larger bit by bit.

Metal was completely confused as to why this was suddenly happening. Had his powers done the same thing as before, with the water? No, he hadn't touched a drop of water, and the humidity in the air was less than five percent. What could it be?

He was taken out of his questioning state by a whistle, and as he looked up, he was met with a face full of pink yo-yo that sent him reeling.

Before Metal could react to the hit, he sensed Buttercup preparing a swing at him from behind.

Turning around in mid-air, he put his forearms together in an attempt to make a shield to protect himself with, reminiscent of their previous fight.

Unfortunately, this time, while the shield did form, it was very thin, and when Buttercup's hammer made contact, it shattered like a piece of glass.

Metal stood, or floated, flabbergasted for a moment, before Buttercup spun with the momentum of her previous swing and made another swing at Metal's side, which connected.

Metal was sent flying to his right, which, if he thought anything like the girls, then that meant he was headed straight for Bubbles.

His prediction was fairly accurate, for as he began to right himself, he turned around, and was met face-to-face with a large, rainbow bubble.

Unfortunately, this one was actually traveling at a considerable speed towards him, and so not even half a second after he saw it, it impacted his face.

Of course, one of these bubbles didn't hurt all that much.

What did hurt was the barrage of what was almost hundreds of bubbles coming after it.

Bubbles was constantly swinging her wand back and forth, sending barrage after barrage of bubbles Metal's way.

Eventually, with one swing, she sent a much larger bubble Metal's way, which popped in front of him and sent him flying again.

This time, Metal caught himself in mid-air and simply floated there, catching his breath from the barrage of attacks he had just been subjected to.

_Why!_ he questioned internally. _Why can't I make anything all of a sudden!_

His thoughts were interrupted as he saw the girls floating up towards him slowly. He then took in the fruits of his labor, or in this case, the injuries he had caused his enemies.

Bubbles was the least hurt out of the trio, though she was decorated with many small bruises, she also had the somewhat large cut on her right arm, which was still bleeding to a small extent.

Blossom was the middle of the two. While she had more bruises than Bubbles, a small trickle of blood coming from the corner of her mouth, and possibly some broken ribs, she was still not as worse off as Buttercup.

Buttercup easily had the most bruises, though the largest one on her stomach couldn't be seen at the moment. Instead of a tiny trickle of blood coming from her mouth, she had three noticeably bigger ones, one on one side of her mouth, and two on the other.

Metal smirked, and began chuckling to himself.

"What's so funny?" Blossom asked, keeping a careful eye on Metal. Metal chuckled a bit more before looking the three girls head on.

"My training paid off," he answered. "I have to say," he clenched his fist in front of him then, "these are pretty good results."

At this, he let out another booming laugh, one that reverberated through what felt like the whole city.

Buttercup then let out an annoyed, "Tch!" and readied her hammer, with her friends doing the same.

"Any last words?" Blossom asked Metal while focusing her energy into her yo-yo. Metal simply kept his cocky smirk.

"Yeah," he said. "Hit me with everything you've got!"

"With pleasure!" the girls all said in unison.

"_Kakigori Launcher_!"

"_Swing Sonic_!"

"_Bubble Popper_!"

As the three attacks headed for Metal, he knew that making a shield would be useless, so he simply crossed his arms and waited for the attacks to connect.

Unfortunately, he had not expected the girls to put everything that they had into the attacks, and when they combined, that meant that it was triple the power.

And so, when they did connect, Metal did hold out against them for a moment, but was then blasted back by their power.

As he was shot away by the energy of the attacks, however, he left another ominous message.

"You got lucky this time! Next time, I'll pummel you all into dust!"

Though he was defeated, he still let out a laugh that echoed back to the girls, making their insides shiver with fear.

For they all knew that Metal meant his threat one hundred percent.

* * *

><p><strong>Holy crap on a cracker... 5,000 something words... It's official: LONGEST CHAPTER EVER! Don't believe what the site says about word counts. They are INSANELY WRONG!<strong>

**Anyways, don't expect any fighting for a while. Obviously, the girls are pretty messed up, and I also want the next several chapters to be character development.**

**Also, don't worry about how the girls will explain their injuries to their classmates. You'll see... (;**

****As always, remember to review, subscribe/favorite, and spread the word. Thanks! ^^****

**Geez, this thing is still really long...**


	9. Caretaking

Heart of Metal

* * *

><p>Chapter 9: Caretaking<p>

* * *

><p>Luckily for the girls, flying back to the lab wasn't too painful. Though, halfway there, Buttercup passed out from either the pain or pure exhaustion; Blossom and Bubbles weren't sure which.<p>

When they reached the lab, the professor was waiting for them with an anxious expression. As soon as they landed, he quickly ushered them inside.

"Quickly," he told them, "we should get you all to the medical wing."

"You have a medical wing?" asked Blossom, curious as to why the professor has never mentioned said wing before.

"Yes," the professor explained, "just in case something goes wrong during any experiments we do. We use some very dangerous chemicals."

Deciding that it wasn't worth talking about any more, the professor opped to carry Buttercup to the medical wing in order to lessen the load on the still bruised Blossom and Bubbles. While he was a man of science, he was still a fully grown adult and Buttercup wasn't very heavy, so carrying her bridal style wasn't very hard.

After a few corridors, they eventually reached a door with a large, red cross over it, indicating that it was indeed the medical wing.

Entering, Blossom saw two rows of medical style beds on each side of the room, each separated by two curtains on each side.

Picking a bed at random, the professor set Buttercup down on it and began to hook up various instruments to her.

When he had finished, he turned to the the other girls.

"You two should get into a bed as well," he said. "While your injuries aren't as serious as Buttercup's, you both still need medical attention."

"Are you a doctor as well, professor?" Bubbles asked. While she did trust the professor greatly, she'd rather be looked after medically by someone with a degree in the subject.

"Actually, yes," the professor confirmed, surprising both Blossom and Bubbles. "As well as chemistry and physics and the like, I also took several medical courses in college. I'm not as good as the best doctors in the world, but if I wasn't here, I'd be in a hospital."

Bubbles nodded, confident in the professor's abilities, and chose the bed next to Buttercup's, wincing as her wounds made it somewhat painful to get up onto it. Blossom did the same with the bed on the opposite side of Buttercup.

Hooking up the same instruments to the other girls as he did with Buttercup, the professor then pressed three buttons that were close to each of the girls' beds. A small humming sound from something mechanical sounded each time when he did it, and both Bubbles and Blossom felt the slightest bit of energy hit them from above.

On a screen on the other side of the room, three pictures suddenly appeared, each being what looked like a human skeleton. Then, the two conscious girls realized then, that they were x-rays of themselves. Luckily, each had a slightly different colored aura to the skeleton to determine whose was whose.

Looking at her own, she could see that the only serious thing wrong with her was that two of her ribs were broken, probably from that cannon ball that Metal had launched into her stomach.

Bubbles knew nothing of how to examine an x-ray, but hers looked alright from her standard. Honestly, while her friends had suffered more brute force injuries, she had many more cuts than they had. She predicted many antiseptic infused bandages in her near future.

Though Buttercup was not conscious, her x-ray was easily the worst out of the three. Several broken ribs, at least four, a broken right arm, which surprised Blossom that she was able to attack Metal at the end of the fight with such an injury, and a slightly fractured jawbone.

Worry shot through both Blossom and Bubbles. Would Buttercup ever recover from these injuries? How would they hide them from their friends and family?

Just then, the professor spoke up.

"I know you're worried, girls," he said, "and I can understand why. But don't worry, I planned for a situation like this."

Then, he went over to a small control panel on one side of the room. Coming back to the girls' beds, he flicked a switch underneath the foot of each of them. Then, going back to the panel, he adjusted a few dials before turning to the girls.

"This might feel very, very odd," he warned. "Try not to move around too much."

He then pressed another button on the panel with the label above it reading, 'Release'.

Almost instantly, Blossom and Bubbles felt something flow up from under them. It was almost immediately absorbed into their bodies, which suddenly began to glow with a white aura.

Then came the odd part. Blossom winced as she could feel her broken ribs...shifting. She didn't know how, or what it was doing, but it was definitely affecting her ribs.

After a few more seconds of the odd feeling, it suddenly turned off, and the glow faded from the girls' bodies.

"What was that?" Bubbles asked, curious as to just what the professor had put into them.

"Take a look at your wounds," the professor answered, smiling.

Looking at the cut on her arm, Bubbles gasped as she saw that it hadn't gone away, but it had lessened in size!

"It's healed a bit!" she marveled. She then also noticed that several of her smaller bruises had gone away completely. The professor smiled.

"In the time before we used the white light you girls gathered on Him," he explained, "I was able to examine it for a short period. I found out that it had very interesting properties, including the ability to heal wounds."

"But," Blossom countered, confused, "I though all the white light was used up when we sealed Him."

"Correct," the professor replied, "but I was able to synthesize a sort of artificial white light from the data I gathered from the real thing."

"Unfortunately," he admitted, "the healing properties only work on those infused with the white light. And, it doesn't work as well as the original. If it had, you girls would probably be fully healed by now."

"If that's that case," Blossom realized, "then give us more so we can be fully healed."

But, to her dismay the professor shook his head.

"I can't do that," he said. "Another side effect of the artificial white light is that it becomes dangerous in large doses. While it would heal you completely and possibly make you more powerful, it would only last a short while before you collapsed, possibly for good."

Blossom grimaced then, deciding that maybe it was best not to have too much of a good thing. Though, a few things still bothered her.

"I get that we'll heal slowly," she said, "but what about hiding these injuries from our families and classmates?"

"Well," the professor started, about to give some ideas to the girls.

But, he was interrupted suddenly by a cough coming from the bed in between Bubbles and Blossom.

"Ugh," Buttercup groaned, "I feel like a steak that's been way over tenderized..."

"Ah, you're awake," the professor said to her. Buttercup slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times.

"Professor?" she questioned. "Where am I?"

"The lab's medical wing," he answered. Buttercup raised an eyebrow.

"We have a medical wing?" she questioned, exactly as Blossom had earlier.

The professor only laughed at the situation, with the other two girls joining in.

They may have been wounded, but they would heal, with time. And, they had won the battle after all.

But they all knew they had not won the war.

* * *

><p>The next day, the girls, unfortunately, had to face the music. While their parents had bought the story no problem, especially since the professor had been there in person to explain it, now they were without him, and there were bound to be suspicions in the class.<p>

Walking into their first class, it was only a few seconds before their injuries were noticed. Not only were there several cuts and bruises on everyone, but Kaoru's right arm was in a sling, and though it couldn't be seen, she and Momoko had special braces on their wastes to prevent their broken ribs from moving too much. And, of course, Miyako had a rather large bandage on her arm where Metal had cut it.

As expected, the class swarmed around them, and a chorus of, "How did this happen?" and similar comments started streaming out of their curious mouths.

A moment later, the commotion was broken up by the teacher, who looked expectantly at the girls.

"Well, girls," he asked, "what did happen to you?"

The girls looked at each other, nodded, and Momoko stepped forward.

"Well..." she started, but trailed off for a bit, before finally answering, "we went hiking in the mountains and...fell off a cliff."

For a moment, silence reigned in the classroom, before the sentence registered in the minds of the students and the teacher, and, in unison, they all shouted out, "WHAT!"

Momoko rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Yep," she confirmed.

"We were walking, and then the ground just collapsed from under us," put in Kaoru. "It was so sudden, we had no chance to get away."

The students stood there for a moment, letting the explanation sink in for a moment, and the girls wondered if they would believe it.

Luckily, they all nodded in understanding, before returning to their seats.

Then, Momoko noticed that a certain someone had not been in the crowd, and currently wasn't in the classroom.

"Where's Sadato?" she asked the teacher. Though they were in separate grades, this class was a study hall, and so there were kids from all of the grades in it.

"I'm not sure," he answered. "He hasn't come in yet."

Momoko sighed out an, "Alright," before turning around and waiting by one of the walls.

A few more minutes passed, and still he didn't show up. Momoko sighed again, wondering how Sadato would react to her current state.

_He'd probably ask if I was alright, what happened, and then just get on with his day,_ she predicted. _That's sorta what everyone else has done._

Just then, the door burst open, and a certain blue-eyed boy came rushing in, panting heavily.

"Here before the bell!" Sadato announced as he entered. The teacher eyed him with an amused smile.

"Well done," he congratulated. "I didn't think you'd do it."

Sadato laughed. "I work harder under pressure."

Truth be told, he had gotten out of bed not five minutes ago and had raced as fast as he could. Though he lived close, there was only a few minutes left until the first bell rang, and so he had ran as fast as he could to get to the building on time.

Then, Sadato turned his head, about to make his way to his seat, when he met a pair of large, pink eyes on the way.

At first, he smiled, but then, as his eyes focused on Momoko, he saw the numerous bruises, cuts, and small bandages all over her body. As they did so, they widened considerably.

Not even two seconds later, Sadato was directly in front of Momoko, asking a slew of questions at such a rapid pace that she could barely understand a word he said.

"Woah!" she said, putting her hands up. "Calm down, Sadato. One thing at a time."

Sadato realized his activeness, and took a deep breath to calm himself down. Then, he resumed his questioning, this time at a pace Momoko could understand, though still very quick.

"Are you alright? What happened? Are you in pain? Is there anythi-"

"Sadato!" Momoko interrupted, for her sake and Sadato's. She was almost sure that he'd concern himself out of air if she didn't.

"I'm alright," she said. "I just had a little...accident when I went hiking over the weekend."

"Accident?" Sadato asked, concern thick in his voice.

"Yeah," Kaoru confirmed as she and Miyako joined the conversation. "We sorta...fell off a cliff."

For a moment, all of the girls were worried that Sadato might question what had really happened, but when he nodded in understanding, they all breathed an internal sigh of relief.

"Are you sure you guys are okay?" he asked the trio, though his eyes never stopped looking at Momoko's damaged body.

"Yeah," Kaoru confirmed, noticing exactly how Sadato was looking at Momoko. "We'll heal. Faster than you think."

"I hope so..." Sadato trailed off, indeed hopeful that his friends would be okay soon.

Kaoru smiled, noting to tell Momoko about Sadato's, 'concerned,' expression later.

It was then that the bell rang, signaling the beginning of a new day.

* * *

><p>Now, of course, Momoko thought the day would be different, what with her injuries and all. For one, she expected to be saying that she had fallen off a cliff a lot that day. For another, while her ribs had healed a little since the fight, they were still sorer than sore, and as such, bending over was a task she just could not complete. Not only this, but also just standing up hurt far more than it should have.<p>

This was all on her expected list for the day. What wasn't, however, was Sadato.

Obviously, she expected him to be surprised and concerned, he was just that kind of a person.

What she didn't expect, however, was the amount of care she and her friends received from Sadato.

All day, he offered to go out of his way to do things for them, like carrying their books, no matter how corny it was, helping them pick up things they had dropped, and in general doing anything he could to help them.

Now came the extremely odd part. While Momoko didn't need the most help out of the trio, she somehow received it. It was amazing how much pain she avoided that day because of Sadato's constant watch over her. She never needed to bend over or crouch to pick up something that she had dropped, and her ribs never once caused her an issue apart from their usual dull ache.

Though at times Kaoru thought Sadato was being a bit irritating, and many other people would have said the same, Momoko adored it. It was almost like being treated like royalty, at least in her mind. When she mentioned this to Sadato, he made a show of bowing to her and calling her, "Your Majesty," which of course caused Momoko to burst into laughter.

Momoko expected the day to be a sucky one, what with her injuries.

But, in all honesty, it was one of the more memorable days of her life.

At the end of the day, despite still having bandages wrapped around her and a brace around her waist, she was smiling her usual happy-go-lucky Momoko smile.

Sadato even offered to treat them to treats, but everyone declined, even Momoko.

"You, not wanting to go for snacks?" Sadato asked when she declined, astonished at the notion.

"Yeah," Momoko replied, "the doctors say that if I stuff myself full of food, I could injure my ribs." Of course, this was a blatant lie, though she didn't like telling it.

In reality, she was actually hiding the fact that they needed to return to the lab for another healing session, which required monitoring for a few hours afterwards, to make sure they didn't have any adverse affects to the white light while not transformed.

Sadato shrugged. "If you say so," he said. He didn't study much medical material, though he did know that Momoko could eat a lot, and he supposed that it could hurt broken ribs if your stomach expanded too much.

"Be careful," he said to the girls, walking away as he did so. "Get better soon!"

At this, he turned the corner in the direction of his house, then beginning the debate over what he would do for the rest of the day.

As soon as Sadato was out of sight, Kaoru smiled an almost evil smile.

"So, Momoko," she said gaining the attention of said friend, "I couldn't help but notice how...helpful Sadato was today."

Through the tone in Kaoru's voice, Momoko was easily able to determine the implied teasing. However, she simply replied, "Yeah, he was helpful today."

"Yeah," Kaoru agreed, then said, "but, he seemed the most helpful to you."

At this, a tiny but still noticeable blush crept onto Momoko's face.

"Well," she said, "it's not like I asked him to ignore you guys."

"It's not that he ignored us," Kaoru said, "more so, it's how he doted over you and practically took care of you."

"What about it?"

"Well," Kaoru started, but then hesitated, wondering if she should get Momoko's hope up.

"Well what?" Momoko asked, curious as to just what Kaoru was implying.

"Ah, it's nothing. Let's go, my ribs are starting to hurt again."

As she walked with her friends to the lab, Momoko had an idea what Kaoru almost said.

_Does she think that...Sadato likes me?_

* * *

><p><strong>So, I've made a slight change to the format of these Authors Notes. From now on, unless someone actually has a review that's more than, "Great chapter, update soon!" I won't be responding. For example, there are no reviews for chapter 8 that are more than that, so no responses here. So, if you do want a response, leave intricate reviews! Though, just because I don't respond, doesn't mean that I don't acknowledge and am not grateful for it. ^^<strong>

**Anyways, props to my friend for coming up with the falling off a cliff explanation. Though, I did have to edit it a bit. He wanted a whole cartoon bubble flashback thing, but I wanted to get to the character development sooner than that, so I left it out.**

**Anyways, t**hanks for reading, and remember to review, favorite/add to alerts, and spread the word. Thanks! ^^****


	10. If You Can't Beat 'Em

Heart of Metal

* * *

><p>Chapter 10: If You Can't Beat 'Em...<p>

* * *

><p>That Monday, Sadato calmly walked home after eating at Kintoukido. While he had plans for that day, though they just involved doing homework, the evil inside of him had other ideas.<p>

Admittedly, Sadato actually didn't remember exactly what transpired during his last encounter with the PPGZ. In fact, he usually didn't remember very much of whatever had happened when he was Metal Morph. Bits and pieces stood out in his memories, but they were usually very faded, and didn't give him much indication as to what he had done.

Of course, this meant that he didn't have a very big clue as to how evil his other side really was. In his normal form, Sadato was as kind, caring, and gentle as can be. Maybe not as much as Miyako, but still.

But, just because he couldn't remember exactly what went on when he was Metal, that didn't mean that couldn't remember the fact that he had lost. And while Sadato tried not to care as much as he could, there was this odd part of him, a part that was right at his core, that just screamed out, wanting revenge.

Though he managed to ignore it well, eventually, the all too familiar pain would shoot through his skull at some point or another, signaling that his body wanted him to transform. He had tried to ignore the pain, which only made it grow with time. He then took a couple painkillers, hoping they'd curb the ache. While they lessened it at first, it only lasted for a few hours, before the pain came back with a vengeance.

He decided to dub the odd pain the, 'Metal Migraine,' so as to have a name to call it by in the future. For shortening purposes, he abbreviated it to the 'MM'.

Sure enough, that Monday, the day after Metal's last fight, luckily after school, the MM went off again almost immediately after Sadato walked into his house.

Groaning, Sadato hung his coat on the coat rack near the door, then went up to his room, throwing his bag onto his bed.

"Are you serious?" he asked aloud, as if whatever internal force that was controlling the pain could hear him.

The MM simply continued to throb in his head, and Sadato sighed.

"At least let me finish my homework," he bargained, not really expecting anything to happen.

He was then surprised when the pain lessened severely, so much so that he now barely felt it. Though, it was still present, enough so that he wouldn't forget about it while he was working.

_So,_ he thought, _whatever's controlling this sense...is sentient?_

Shaking off the thought, Sadato got to work on what little work he actually had to complete. Though, at a slower pace, so as to delay his transformation.

* * *

><p>It turned out that, after some careful testing from the professor, that the white light had no adverse effects while the girls weren't transformed.<p>

Unfortunately, while their injuries were healing faster than they would be without the light, they were still in no condition to battle crime. After testing it out, just transforming was extremely painful. The professor said that he'd have to calculate how long it would be until they fully healed.

Until then, they just hoped that the local villains would remain quiet. They had been for the past week or so, and hopefully it would stay that way. Though, they were really only worried about one villain in particular.

After their healing session, which involved pumping as much artificial white light as the professor dared into the girls' bodies, they decided that it might be a good idea to strategize against Metal, for whenever their next fight with him arose.

Playing back footage that the cameras around the area captured, the girls, the professor, Ken, and Peach all looked on in order to try and find some sort of flaw in Metal's fighting.

They found no such flaw until they came to the part when Metal's creations suddenly seemed less durable and stopped forming.

After rewinding the clips several times, the professor pondered exactly why Metal's shield had broken so easily, and why his ball and chain had not completely formed.

"I think I might know what happened," Ken finally said, standing up and typing away at the computer below the monitor.

* * *

><p>"I've only got so much metal?" Metal shouted out to his empty training area in the forest, as if some being would provide him with an explanation.<p>

As much as he wanted to deny it, the fact remained. The metal contained within his body wasn't infinite, and eventually, it ran out.

"Dammit!" he swore, punching a tree in anger. Of course, the tree easily broke, flying back and knocking over several more trees before stopping.

"Well this is just great!" Metal sarcastically said to himself. "How am I supposed to get my metal back?"

From earlier testing, he knew that the alloy he produced was special. It always had just the slightest tint of purple and black when it was made, and after some strength testing, it was a hell of a lot stronger than even a special titanium alloy he had stolen from some construction site.

He hoped that he wouldn't have to use some other alloy, for fear that it wouldn't be strong enough for combat purposes.

He was just about to punch another tree in anger, and probably decimate the forest that much more, he had a brainwave.

"Wait a second," he said aloud, "is it really that simple...?"

Walking over to his training post, which was still there, he then placed his hand on the body, concentrating inwardly.

Suddenly, the post began to shrink, almost as if it was decomposing from all sides simultaneously in the general direction of Metal's hand.

Eventually, the entire post had completely disappeared into Metal's hand, and owner of said hand smiled, having figured out the solution to his conundrum.

At least, he hoped he had.

He needed one other test, however, to confirm that he could really use this ability.

Flying into the air, he made a beeline for a specific area.

The Tokyo Junkyard.

* * *

><p>"You think Metal only has so much...metal?" Kaoru asked, hesitating in the middle of her sentence due to how odd it sounded.<p>

"Exactly," Ken confirmed. "Metal's creations near the end of your fight had significantly less mass and durability to them than at the start. I also noticed that when he was examining that ball and chain that didn't form properly, it seemed to still be forming, which tells me that Metal's body produces its own metal at a very slow rate."

"Then, does that mean he's out of metal right now?" Momoko asked.

"Possibly," Ken replied, "but, if my theory is correct, and Metal thinks at least half as well as he fights, then that means he'll be able to absorb more metal from any source."

"Won't that harm him though?" Miyako asked. "I mean, I doubt any metal he could absorb is stronger than what we can break."

"I can debunk that," the professor said, standing up, while Ken took his seat.

The professor began typing away at the keyboard, and a picture of Metal showed up on the monitor. Several small labels with lines pointing to various parts of Metal's body then appeared, with each label sporting various data points.

"My theory," the professor explained, "is that the black light inside Metal somehow changes whatever metal he absorbs into his own unique alloy. Knowing this, he's probably getting back the Metal he lost in the fight right now."

"Which means..." he trailed off, typing several more commands into the console.

The screen then flashed to a live camera feed from the Tokyo Junkyard.

For a moment, the girls expected for the professor to complete his sentence, but instead, something else did.

Suddenly, on the screen, a prominent piece of metal that was sticking out from the rest suddenly vanished. Immediately afterwards, more metal from that area also began to rapidly disappear.

"W-what's that?" Momoko asked, scared as to what the answer might be.

Instead of answering, the professor merely zoomed in with the camera to reveal a certain black figure grabbing giant pieces of metal and absorbing them into his body, all the while laughing maniacally.

"There he is," the professor said. "As I thought."

He then turned to face the girls, who all had scowls on their faces.

"Now that he knows about his ability to absorb metal, girls, that means he's going to implement it into his fighting. So, next time you fight him, I'd recommend trying to lead him into the forest, or someplace that doesn't have a lot of metal. Fighting in the city, he'll have practically unlimited amounts of it."

The girls nodded, each leaving mental notes to remember that during their next fight.

"Though," the professor added, "I don't think he'll cause trouble for a while."

"Why do you say that?" Miyako asked.

"Metal Morph is probably just figuring out about his limited metal supply," he explained, "just like we are. That means that he still doesn't know everything about his own powers. My prediction is that not only will he be spending some time figuring out other things he doesn't know, but also, waiting for you girls to heal."

At this, the girls each cocked an eyebrow.

"Why would Metal wait for us to heal?" Kaoru asked. "If he's a monster, then he'd surely take the chance to pound us while we can't fight."

"Well," the professor said, "I think that Metal isn't quite like that. You see, most monsters have a motive to why they fight. Mojo, however pathetic his attempts are, wants to take revenge on humans. Princess wants to stand out more than other people. Even the Gangreen Gang has a sort of motive; they want to become famous, in a way."

"So I ask you this," he finished. "What's Metal Morph's motive to why he fights you?"

The girls, each unable to answer, simply looked at each other before turning back to the professor.

"The answer is that he wants to be the strongest. The black light from Him's body is extremely evil in every way. Wanting to triumph over you, girls, and be stronger than you is most likely his goal. Now, there's another possibility, and that's that Metal just likes to fight strong opponents. That would explain why he wasn't very angry at the end of your last fight."

"I think," he concluded, "that we take this window of opportunity to prepare for our next encounter with Metal."

"How do we do that?" Momoko questioned. "We're still injured from our last fight."

The professor nodded. "I know. But, with some calculating, I was able to find out that I can increase the amount of white light I pump into you every day by a certain amount. If my calculations are correct, you girls should be all healed by Friday."

At this, the three girls all shouted out, "All right!" and fist-pumped together. The professor smiled.

"Then," he continued, "we'll start your training."

* * *

><p><strong>This is a short one, but it sets up the next few chapters.<strong>

**Odd thing, I noticed that nobody reviewed last chapter. *confused face* I mean, sure, I said that I wouldn't be responding to reviews that didn't have a whole lot of meat to them, but still, I do like the usual, "Great chapter! Can't wait for more!" review. ):?**

**Anyways, t**hanks for reading, and remember to subscribe, favorite, and spread the word. Thanks! ^^****


	11. Join 'Em!

Heart of Metal

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><p>Chapter 11: Join 'Em!<p>

* * *

><p>Sure enough, after school on Friday, after a healing session that lasted longer than the previous day, the girls found themselves back at full power.<p>

"All right!" Kaoru shouted after hopping off the medical bed. "I feel ready to take on the world!"

"Good," the professor replied. "Now, let's test your transformation."

"Right!" the girls all replied enthusiastically.

"Hyper Blossom!"

"Rolling Bubbles!"

"Powered Buttercup!"

"_Powerpuff Girls Z_!"

It had been almost a week since the girls had transformed, and it felt good for them to be back in uniform, so to speak.

"Do you feel alright?" the professor asked. While the girls' normal bodies may have healed completely, he wasn't one-hundred percent sure about their PPGZ bodies.

After some stretching by each of the girls, the each nodded.

"We feel great!" Blossom said, truly meaning it. She felt like she could take on Him again, and this time actually stand a chance.

"In that case," the professor said, "let's get started. Follow me."

The girls, having already been hinted as to what was coming up, nodded and followed the professor down several hallways before he stopped in front of a blank wall.

"Umm," Bubbles let out, slightly confused, "where's the door?"

The professor merely smiled, and felt around the wall for a bit before finding a small panel and lifting it off, revealing a hand scanner.

Placing his hand on the scanner, the machinery hummed for a bit, and a light shone beneath his hand, before a computerized voice came out, saying, "_Access granted._"

The wall then slid away to reveal a sliding door, which in turn also slid away to reveal their true destination.

Inside was a room with a control panel around fifteen feet in length, with buttons, knobs, switches, and sliders galore.

There was a window the same length as the control panel directly above said panel. Looking through the window, the girls could see nothing but a white dome, or at least the inside of one.

"What is this?" Blossom asked, gazing around at all the buttons and what-nots on the control panel.

"This," the professor explained, "is what I like to call the Virtual Reality And Gravity room, or just VRAG for short."

"Virtual reality?" Blossom questioned again. She had heard the term many times before in mangas she had read, but she wondered if the concept could really be pulled off in real life.

"Yes," the professor confirmed. "This simulator is able to project nearly any scenario into the large space you see there. From bank robberies, to any of the supervillains you girls have fought, this machine can do it all."

"What about the gravity part?"

"Well," the professor started, but then, suddenly stopped, smiling.

"Y'know," he said, "why don't I just show you."

Going over to the console and pressing a few buttons, a door slid away to reveal the entrance to the white area.

"Go on in," the professor said, gesturing with his arms.

The girls, first looking at each other with slightly nervous faces, walked into the innards of the white dome.

As the door slid shut behind them, they walked around the area, surprised as its apparent hugeness on the inside.

Blossom also noticed that the viewing window that they had seen earlier wasn't visible, meaning that it was only one-way.

Suddenly, the entire dome began to hum mechanically, and all of a sudden, the girls found themselves battling with an invisible weight pressing down on every inch of their bodies.

It was as if every cell in their body had doubled in weight, and was now trying to force the girls down to the ground.

Had the girls not been strong enough to support their own weight, that may have happened. But, as it was, the girls simply felt the weight addition and flexed their arms and legs, getting accustomed to the new feeling.

It didn't last too long, however, before whatever machinery was powering the dome shut off, and the girls felt their bodies return to normal.

Suddenly, the professor's appeared in the dome, presumably over some sort of intercom system.

"As you can see," he said, "the VRAG uses very advanced technology to simulate gravity much greater than that which you experience normally. One G is what you feel normally on earth. What you just felt was two G's. This machine, though I'm not sure if you girls will ever get to this point, will go all the way to six-hundred G's."

"Six-hundred!" the girls all exclaimed, astounded at the capabilities of the device they were standing in.

"Yes," the professor confirmed. "Now, let me show you the virtual reality simulator."

For a few moments, silence reigned in the dome, before the strange humming sound started again, and the entire room began to change.

The upper part of the dome began to turn blue, indicating the sky. Various large colored prisms started to form out of thin air, before making themselves known as buildings.

Then, the odd transfiguration completed, leaving the girls floating in what looked like downtown Tokyo.

"Wow!" Buttercup exclaimed, surprised at the detail of the situation. "This is-"

Before she could continue, a black blur rushed by, and in turn, Buttercup's head twisted to the side, and she went flying into the nearest building.

"Buttercup!" Bubbles shouted out, before an all too familiar black figure floated down in front of her and Blossom.

"If she went down that easily," Metal taunted, crossing his arms, "then I won't even need both hands to take you two down."

Blossom didn't even say anything before furiously launching her yo-yo at Metal with frightening speeds. Metal, all the while not even uncrossing his arms, dodged the disc on a string with apparent ease.

Then, on one specific launch, Metal raised his left hand and caught the yo-yo with even more ease.

Yanking his left arm down and hard to the right with all he had, Blossom, who was of course attached to the thing, went flying towards him.

Winding his right fist back, Metal waited a bit, then flung his fist forward, aiming right for Blossom's head.

Blossom, of course seeing the fist heading straight for her, shut her eyes and prepared for the pain.

But, surprisingly, it never came. Opening her eyes, she saw Metal's fist only inches away from her face.

Metal then retracted his fist and let go of Blossom's yo-yo, standing upright with his arms blandly by his sides.

Suddenly, the entire area started to change again. Though, this time, the area began to revert back to the white dome from whence it came.

Metal, like the scenery around him, simply faded away into nothing, leaving Blossom wondering just how exactly he had been simulated so accurately.

Buttercup then rejoined the two girls, rubbing her head, obviously from the blow she had received.

"Well," the professor's voice said, once again appearing over the intercom, "how was that?"

The girls all looked at each other, before Buttercup answered. "Very real," she concluded.

The professor's chuckling could be heard over the intercom. "Indeed," he agreed, "that is the point of it after all."

"How does it work?" Blossom questioned, curious as to how the system could simulate something so real.

"Well," the professor started, sounding slightly hesitant, "it's very hard to explain. But basically, the dome emits a field that gets into your brain and simulates what's going on. Honestly, that's the bare bone basics, if I go into any more depth, I don't think you girls will understand."

"However," he continued, "you will get this. The virtual reality part of the VRAG isn't really meant for training, at least not by itself. The virtual reality part is just meant to set up scenarios for you girls to be in while the gravity part puts pressure on your bodies. This way, not only will the gravity part allow you to get stronger physically, but the scenario simulations will allow you to come up with new strategies."

"Wait," Bubbles interrupted, "how will the gravity make us stronger?"  
>"The same way working out with normal weights would," the professor said. "When you train at high levels of gravity, your bodies will eventually grow used to it, and you'll be able to do everything you can do now at those higher levels. Then, when you fight at normal gravity, your bodies will be used to moving at higher gravity levels. As such, your bodies will be much faster and stronger under normal conditions."<p>

The girls nodded, all of them now understanding exactly what the machine was capable of.

"Remember, Metal Morph isn't the only thing that the VRAG can simulate. The panel here has many advanced options, but there's a voice activated interface that will respond to each of you. If you need help setting anything up, both Ken and myself know how to work the machine."

"Feel free to use this anytime you wish. The only caution I give you is to take the gravity advancement slowly. If you take it too far, the effect could be extremely dangerous."

As the girls nodded for the final time, the VRAG suddenly hummed to life again, this time going into both virtual reality mode and gravity mode at the same time.

"In that case," the professor said, "let's get started."

* * *

><p><strong>Hooray for filler! Seriously, though, this is pure filler, and just a little something before the summer.<strong>

**For those of you who didn't read the summer update thing I put out (I will have deleted it by now), basically, I will have no computer over the summer, meaning that updates to this...will not happen. Now, I may or may not be typing this on my phone, but since I can't make _italics_, bold, or underline on my phone, I doubt it. So, be expecting this to go on hiatus for the summer, unfortunately.**

**Review Responses:**

**USAthroughout - Yeah, launching into the sky was overused, but it's a part of the show we all know and love, so I just had to have it in here. ^^ While this is meant to add more realism and seriousness, it's also meant to be long as possible, so stick around for the future, friend!**

**Anyways, t**hanks for reading, and remember to review, favorite/add to alerts, and spread the word. Have a fantastic summer, everyone! ^^****


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